Sampling:Subsurface seawater samples were collected with 4 GO-FLO bottles that were deployed on the kevlar cable of the Maria S. Merian.Sample treatment at sea:Samples were filtered through a 0.2 µm Sartorius cartridge filter into acid cleaned 1 L LDPE bottles. After filtration, trace metal samples were acidified with Q-HCl (3 ml into 1 ml SW), below pH 2. Filtered samples for ligand measurements (FeL, ZnL, CdL) were filled in 0.5 L HDPE bottles and frozen prior analysis on board.All ligand measurements were performed at sea.All work was performed under clean air conditions in a clean container (University of Bremen).Measurement:Trace metal concentrations were measured at Kiel by GF-AAS and a method adopted from Grasshoff et al. (1999). Iron ligand concentrations were measured by voltammetry (CLE-ACSV) and a method adopted from Croot and Johansson (2000).Quality Flag:WOCE converted to internal format, see hdl:10013/epic.31518.d001.