This dataset contains data collected from six shipboard measurements taken from the R/V Ocean Researcher I between April 2014 and November 2015, which covered the entire season: April, July, September, and November 2014 and March, June, September, and November 2015 in the Kuroshio, east of Taiwan described in the paper: “Chung-Chi Chen, Pei-Ji Meng, Chih-hao Hsieh, Sen Jan (2022). Plankton community respiration and particulate organic carbon in the Kuroshio, east of Taiwan. Plants“.

The main results of this study included seven figures, which show: 1). The sampling stations; 2). Typical depth profile contour plots of temperature, nitrate, chlorophyll a and particulate organic carbon within 250 m water depth along the KTV1 transect in September 2015; 3). Temporal and spatial variations of the mean values of nitrate and phosphate across the KTV1 transect of the Kuroshio; 4). Temporal and spatial variations of the mean values of chlorophyll a, particulate organic carbon, and plankton community respiration across the KTV1 transect of the Kuroshio; 5). Relationships between the concentration of plankton community respiration vs. particulate organic carbon, chlorophyll a, heterotrophic bacterioplankton, and all picophytoplankton; 6). Relationships between the concentration of particulate organic carbon vs. chlorophyll a and picophytoplankton for all pooled data; and 7). Temporal and spatial variations of the mean values of picophytoplankton in terms of abundance and biomass across the KTV1 transect of the Kuroshio.

To understand the coastal uplift effect on the Kuroshio ecosystem, eight stations (K101–K108) along a transect (KTV1) between 121.72° and 123° E at 23.75° N were repeatedly surveyed across the Kuroshio, east of Taiwan. At each station, seawater was sampled at eight depths (2–5, 10, 30, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 m), using Teflon-coated Go-Flo bottles (20 l, General Oceanics Inc., USA) mounted on a General Oceanic rosette assembly. Sub-samples were taken for analyses of dissolved inorganic nutrients (e.g., nitrate and phosphate), particulate organic carbon (POC), chlorophyll a (Chl a), autotrophic picoplankton (e.g., Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus, and picoeukaryotes) and heterotrophic bacteria abundances, and plankton community respiration. The analyzed methods for each variable can be found in the paper. The data has been processed by simple and multiple linear regression analyses using “SigmaStat” (ver. 3.5, Systat Software, Inc.) to produce a manuscript for publication in Plants.

The “Readme_Plankton CR and POC” file contains an explanation of each of the variables in the dataset and its measurement units. Information on how the measurements were done or data were retrieved can be found in the associated manuscript referenced above.