Whether phytoplankton growth is solely constrained by temperature (hotter is better) or compensated by thermal adaptation is still under debate. We measured the temperature sensitivity of natural phytoplankton communities at both short-term and seasonal timescales using temperature manipulation experiments. The activation energy across communities (mean ± SE: E_i = 0.51 ± 0.12 eV, Q₁₀ = 1.98) is significantly lower than that within communities (E_a = 0.80 ± 0.10 eV, Q₁₀ = 2.80). Moreover, using a larger dataset of phytoplankton growth rates measured in (sub)tropical waters, we estimated the across-community activation energy as 0.33 ± 0.06 eV (Q₁₀ = 1.56), which is also lower than E_a. Our study is the first to suggest the “hotter is partially better” for natural phytoplankton communities, indicating that the phytoplankton communities can show some thermal adaptation capability. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating the differential temperature sensitivities at different timescales into the biogeochemical models to better evaluate how marine ecosystems will respond to climate changes.

中文翻译：

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天然浮游植物组合中部分热补偿的证据

浮游植物的生长是完全受温度限制（越热越好）还是通过热适应来补偿仍然存在争议。我们使用温度操纵实验测量了短期和季节性时间尺度上天然浮游植物群落的温度敏感性。整个社区的活化能（平均值±SE：E _i  = 0.51 ± 0.12 eV，Q ₁₀  = 1.98）明显低于社区内的活化能（E _a  = 0.80 ± 0.10 eV，Q ₁₀  = 2.80）。此外，使用在（亚）热带水域测量的浮游植物生长速率的更大数据集，我们估计跨群落活化能为 0.33 ± 0.06 eV（Q ₁₀ = 1.56)，也低于E _a。我们的研究首次提出天然浮游植物群落“越热越好”，表明浮游植物群落可以表现出一定的热适应能力。我们的结果强调了将不同时间尺度的温差敏感性纳入生物地球化学模型以更好地评估海洋生态系统如何应对气候变化的重要性。