Despite reports that the elemental composition of organisms such as marine phytoplankton in an oceanic region do not conform to the canonical Redfield ratio, the fundamental concept of this ratio remains valid and useful. In 2014, an article was released in the Scientific Data journal, which aggregated Redfield ratios measurements from observational cruises around the world from 1970 to 2010. This article provides a large database that can be used to study the evolution of particular phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen across sea stations and time.