Deep-sea sediment samples were taken from the (wider) Kairei hydrothermal field area (25°S, 70°E) as well as a remote site (26°S, 71°E) in the Indian Ocean during the INDEX cruise 2016 with the N/O Pourquoi pas? (Ifremer, France). Push core samples from different areas of the Kairei vent field, as well as a sample from the remote site (~200 km south-east from the Kairei), were recovered with the help of the ROV VICTOR 6000 (Ifremer, France). All subsampling steps were carried out shipboard at 4 °C. With sterile syringes (nozzles removed) 3 ml of 2 cm layers of sediment were transferred into sterile falcon tubes for DNA extraction and stored at –80 °C. The remaining sediment was cut into 2 cm slices, freeze-dried, and partially milled to <75 mm for geochemical analyses. The sediment was analyzed for carbon chemistry, i.e. total organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic carbon (TIC) with routine standard methods (IR-detection after combustion, ISO 10694, LECO CS 230 analyzer). Elemental composition of Kairei sediments was estimated by the accredited Actlab Laboratories, Canada (Multimethod mix called Ultratrace 3 program, using INAA, 4-Acid Digestion, ICP-OES, and ICP-MS). Sediments from the remote station were analyzed by routine WD-XRF after fusion with Li-Metaborate/Li-Bromide (XRF spectrometers Philips PW 2400 und Philips PW 1480).

Sequence data were deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the accession number: BioProject PRJNA474182.