Metagenomic data from surface seawater of the east coast of South Korea

The East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, is a marginal sea located in the western Pacific Ocean, displaying comparable characteristics to Earth’s oceans, thereby meriting its recognition as a “miniature ocean”. The East Sea exhibits a range of annually-recurring biogeochemical features in accordance with seasonal fluctuations, such as phytoplankton blooms during the spring and autumn seasons. Despite ongoing monitoring efforts focused on water quality and physicochemical parameters, the investigation of prokaryotic assemblages in the East Sea, encompassing seasonal variations, has been infrequently pursued. Here, we present a monthly time-series metagenomic dataset spanning a one-year period in 2009, obtained from surface (10 m) seawater samples collected off the coast of the East Sea. The dataset encompasses 12 metagenomes, amounting 195 Gbp, with 14.73–22.52 Gbp per sample. This dataset is accompanied by concurrently measured physicochemical parameters. Our anticipation is that these metagenomes will facilitate extensive investigations aimed at elucidating various aspects of the marine microbial ecosystems in the East Sea.