Energy-starved microbes in deep marine sediments are active and abundant, persisting in near-zero growth states for thousands of years with unknown mechanisms. Deep Baltic sea sediments were investigated with single cell genomics, metabolomics, metatranscriptomics, and enzyme assays to identify persistence mechanisms employed by Atribacteria, Aminicenantes, Actinobacteria OPB41, Aerophobetes, Chloroflexi, Deltaproteobacteria Desulfatiglans sp., Bathyarchaeota, and Euryarchaeota Marine Group II lineages. This BioProject will archive the single cell genomes obtained from this study.