Abstract
Temperature has a strong influence on the chemical composition of marine phytoplankton. A common characteristic of several species is a minimum nutrient content (as nitrogen or carbon) per cell at the temperature optimum for cell division, with increasing cellular biomass at lower and higher temperatures. Hence, cell division and nutrient uptake rates are uncoupled with respect to temperature. This raises doubts concerning the role of temperature in phytoplankton ecology and the predictive value of existing models of kinetic growth and uptake.

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