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© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Samson, J. E., Ghisalberti, M., Adams, M. P., Reidenbach, M. A., Long, M. H., Shavit, U., & Pasour, V. B. Editorial: Canopies in aquatic ecosystems: integrating form, function, and biophysical processes. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 697, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00697., This Research Topic presents new research investigating the coupling between physical (fluid dynamics, mass transport, and light availability) and biological (nutrient cycling, particle transport, ecosystem structure, and biodiversity) processes in aquatic canopies. The starting point for this topic was the observation that our notion of “canopy” in the aquatic sciences, in contrast to that of our terrestrially-focused colleagues, remains underdeveloped. Forest canopy studies have been considered a new field of science (Nadkarni et al., 2011) and the concept of forest canopy research is clearly documented in the literature (Barker and Pinard, 2001; Nadkarni, 2001; Lowman, 2009); we have not found similar mentions of the canopy concept in aquatic studies. Over the past decade, however, there has been an increase in the number of studies on underwater canopies, as well as a shift toward more multidisciplinary studies that consider more than just the physical impacts of the canopy's presence (Ackerman, 2007; Nepf et al., 2007; O'Brien et al., 2014)., MA acknowledges funding support from Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant LP160100496 and the National Environmental Science Programme (NESP) Tropical Water Quality Hub. Funding to MR provided by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1237733 and DEB-1832221) and by a NSF CAREER grant (OCE-1151314). ML was supported by NSF OCE grant 1633951.