Data for: Responses of marine phytoplankton communities to environmental changes: new insights from a niche classification scheme

A dataset that contains mean values of total chlorophyll a (iTChla), relative abundances of nine phytoplankton groups (iDino: dinoflagellates, iDiat: diatoms, iHapt_8: haptophytes_8, iHapt_6: haptophytes_6, iChlo: chlorophytes, iCryp: cryptophytes, iProc: Prochlorococcus, iSyne: Synechococcus, and iPras: prasinophytes), and three environmental factors (iTemp: temperature, Em: irradiance, and iNOx: nitrate) in the upper mixed layer of the South China Sea.