A global dataset of marine pelagic microbial respiration

This dataset includes measurements of marine microbial respiration and associated environmental variables contributed before July 2025 and collated within the UK research project MicroRESPIRE and the international working group Respiration in the Mesopelagic Ocean (ReMO). The dataset includes respiration rates estimated from oxygen consumption in incubations measured with optodes, membrane inlet mass spectrometry, or Winkler analytical chemistry with optical, potentiometric or spectrophotometric detection. Rates were also estimated from the formation of formazan during incubations of water samples (INT technique) or in samples captured on filters (ETS technique). Estimates of respiration rates were also calculated from the difference between net community production and gross primary production derived from the production of oxygen during an incubation of a water sample spiked with 18O labelled water. Other incubation-based estimates were derived from the fluorescence of the redox dye RedoxSensor Green (RSG) and the production of 14CO2 during the incubation of a water sample spiked with 14C-leucine. In situ respiration was estimated from changes in oxygen concentration measured by oxygen sensors deployed on platforms such BGC Argo floats or CTDs. Measurements of prokaryote production and abundance are also included. Environmental variables include dissolved oxygen, temperature, phytoplankton chlorophyll, inorganic nutrients and dissolved and particulate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The data are available in ASCII, Excel and Ocean Data View formats and accompanied by a machine-readable JSON-LD description file. Standard deviation or standard error uncertainty values are provided where available. Metadata include details of the methods used such as volume sampled, incubation time and temperature, equations used to derive oxygen consumption at in situ temperature and details of any filtration step. Data providers (with ORCID), links to the data centre where the original data are held and publications describing the data and methods are also included. The aim is for the dataset to be as easy to use as possible by field going scientists and modellers investigating the flux of carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, with a particular focus on the mesopelagic zone between 200 and 1000 m. This data collation was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project MicroRESPIRE NE/X008630/1 as part of the BioCarbon programme and by funding to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) working group #161 (Respiration in the Mesopelagic Ocean: ReMO) provided by the national committees of SCOR and from a grant to SCOR from the U.S. National Science Foundation (OCE-2513154).