The Daya Bay metagenomic and metatranscriptomic dataset

Planktonic microbial and viral communities are fundamental drivers of biogeochemical cycling and energy flow in marine ecosystems. These communities display substantial variability in their composition at daily to hourly scales, which can’t be captured by conventional low-frequency monthly or weekly sampling. To reveal the high-resolution dynamics, we performed an hourly time-series sampling of planktonic microorganisms and viruses in subtropical Daya Bay. Seawater samples were collected at two-hour intervals over three days and subjected to metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing for the cellular fraction and viromic sequencing for the viral fraction. This approach enabled us to capture fine-scale temporal variations in the genomic composition and transcriptional activities of microbial and viral communities. The resulting comprehensive dataset provides a valuable resource for investigating the metabolic potentials and dynamic interactions within natural planktonic microbial-viral assemblages in subtropical bay ecosystems, offering insights into their ecological roles that are inaccessible through lower-resolution sampling.