To determine respiration of Primnoella chilensis colonies, they were exposed to turbid seawater in individual respiration chambers of 600 mL for approx. 18 hours (Treatment 1: equals sedimentation rate of 225 mm/y; Treatment 2: equals sedimentation rate of 450 mm/y; control group: ambient seawater). The incubation time of 18 h was chosen to ensure normoxic conditions with an oxygen saturation of > 70 %. Oxygen concentration was measured immediately before and after the experiment using a needle-type oxygen microsensor connected to a temperature-compensated oxygen meter.

This dataset was generated in the frame of the co-operation between the Huinay Scientific Field Station (http://www.huinay.cl), the Instituto de Acuicultura of Universidad Austral de Chile Sede Puerto Montt (http://iacui.uach.cl/) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (http://www.awi.de).