Description: This data is part of the BMBF project CUSCO (Coastal Upwelling Systems in a Changing Ocean). Here we report pigment concentrations and the phytoplankton community composition based on CHEMTAX analysis during a 35-day experiment, where we enclosed natural plankton communities in in-situ mesocosms off Peru. The experiment investigated the interactive effects of light and upwelling on the Humboldt upwelling ecosystem by mimicking a gradient of upwelling intensities (0%, 15%, 30%, 45% and 60%) under summer-time high light and winter-time low light. Integrated seawater samples from a depth between 0 and 10m were collected using a 5L Integrating Water sampler (IWS; Hydro-Bios, Kiel). To obtain pigment concentrations 0.15 – 1L of water sampled from the water column were filtered onto glass-fiber filters (precombusted at 450°C for 6h, GFF, 0.7 µm nominal pore size, Whatman) using a low vacuum of 200 mbar. Afterwards the filters were stored in cryovials at -80°C until analysis of photosynthetic pigments using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) following (Barlow et al., 1997; doi:10.3354/meps161303) as described by (Paul et al., 2015; doi:10.5194/bg-19-5911-2022). The phytoplankton community composition was calculated with CHEMTAX, which classifies phytoplankton taxa based upon taxon-specific pigment ratios (Mackey et al., 1996; doi:10.3354/meps144265). The values for the Peruvian upwelling system determined by (DiTullio et al., 2005; doi:10.4319/LO.2005.50.6.1887) as described by (Meyer et al., 2017; doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00001) were used as pigment ratios. As phytoplankton microscopy revealed high abundances of the raphydophite Fibrocapsa japonica, the initial pigment matrix was complemented by ratios for F. japonica from (Laza-Martinez et al., 2007; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbm069) from the Atlantic.