尽管温度很久以来就被认为是影响浮游植物生长和初级生产力的重要环境因子，但浮游植物生长的温度极限却很少被关注。在此研究中，本项目研究人员陈炳章使用线性混合模型分析了浮游植物生长的最适、最低和最高温度的纬度分布特征。对海洋浮游植物而言，最适、最低和最高温度均随着纬度上升而降低；但淡水浮游植物的最低和最高温度不随纬度有明显变化趋势。淡水浮游植物适合生长的温度范围要高于海水浮游植物。 浮游植物适合生长的温度范围不随纬度增加而增加，与Jenzen法则不相一致。不同海洋浮游植物最低生长温度具有显著差异。在相同的纬度和最大生长率下，蓝绿藻和甲藻的最低生长温度显著高于硅藻。对于海洋浮游植物而言，较高的生长率伴随较大的生长温度范围；然而在淡水浮游植物中并未见此现象。

Bingzhang Chen. 2015. Patterns of thermal limits in phytoplankton. Journal of Plankton research 37 (2), 285-292. (Featured Article).

Abstract：

The latitudinal patterns of the optimal, minimal and maximal growth temperatures of phytoplankton are analyzed using linear mixed-effect models, and whether environmental temperature plays a role in affecting these thermal traits is tested. The optimal, minimal and maximal growth temperatures of phytoplankton decrease with latitude for marine taxa; whereas the minimal and maximal growth temperatures are relatively invariant with latitude for freshwater phytoplankton. The thermal breadth, defined as the range between the maximal and minimal growth temperature, is larger for freshwater than marine phytoplankton. In contrast to Jenzen’s rule, there is no increasing trend of thermal breadth with increasing latitude. For most phytoplankton, the minimal growth temperatures are lower than the lowest environmental temperatures and the maximal growth temperatures are higher than the highest environmental temperatures. In marine phytoplankton, there is a strong phylogenetic signal in the minimal growth temperature and hence the thermal breadth. After controlling other variables (i.e. latitude and maximal growth rate) constant, the minimal growth temperatures of cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates are significantly higher than that of diatoms. The thermal breadths of cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates are narrower than of diatoms. The maximal growth rate is positively correlated with thermal breadth for marine but not freshwater phytoplankton.