Data was collected with an Underwater Vision Profiler, Version 5 (UVP5; Picheral et al 2010). The UVP5 was mounted on the CTD-Rosette. It was always deployed in vertical mode and operated during each CTD cast. The UVP5 takes pictures of an illuminated water volume every few milliseconds. Imaged items are counted and for items > 0.5 mm a vignette or thumbnail was saved, which was later classified by experts. The information on the abundance of different aggregate, phytoplankton and zooplankton categories is listed in the columns "Individuals per unit volume".