This dataset includes measurements of marine microbial respiration and associated environmental variables contributed before July 2025 and collated within the UK research project MicroRESPIRE and the international working group Respiration in the Mesopelagic Ocean (ReMO). Measurements of prokaryote production and abundance are also included. Environmental variables include dissolved oxygen, temperature, phytoplankton chlorophyll, inorganic nutrients and dissolved and particulate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The data are available in ASCII, Excel and Ocean Data View formats, with error values where available. Metadata include details of the methods used such as volume sampled, incubation time and temperature, equations used to derive oxygen consumption at in situ temperature and details of any filtration step. Data providers (with ORCID), links to the data centre where the original data are held and publications describing the data and methods are also included. The aim is for the dataset to be as easy to use as possible by field going scientists and modellers investigating the flux of carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, with a particular focus on the mesopelagic zone between 200 and 1000m.