This dataset contains chlorophyll and true-color maps of intertidal sediment collected from Sylt, Germany (55.0252°N, 8.436°E) and measured in sediment containers. The maps were derived from hyperspectral images of the sediment surface while immersed in an aquarium with continuous input of fresh seawater. Measurements were conducted in June 2010 in an outdoor laboratory with shaded natural illumination.The provided file is in HDF5 format, and metadata is stored for each dataset (http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/). The true-color maps ("rgb-reffed") are obtained by combining three spectral channels for red, green and blue synthesis.The chlorophyll maps ("mpbi") are reported in Microphytobenthic Index units, as described in Chennu et al. 2013, doi:10.4319/lom.2013.11.511.The size of each pixel is approximately 0.25 mm.The dataset contains 6 sediment containers (square1, square2, square3, square7, square8, square9) measured at three different timepoints. The sediment in containers 1-3 was defaunated, whereas in 7-9 a single lugworm (Arenicola marina) was added into the sediment. The measurement timepoints were on day1, day4 and day 11.