Abstract: Marine phytoplankton are important contributors to global primary productivity, and their biomass is limited by nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. As an essential element for cell metabolism, phosphorus is scarce in the euphotic zone of oligotrophic ocean and becomes a limiting factor for phytoplankton growth. Low concentration of phosphorus not only directly affects the growth, reproduction and succession of phytoplankton, but also has a profound impact on marine carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycle. Global warming intensifies the stratification of water column and causes less nutrients supply and vertical mixing. As an adaption to the changing marine environments, phytoplankton have evolved multiple strategies to cope with the phosphorus limitation such as decreasing growth rate, enhancing phosphorus absorption and storage, hydrolyzing organic phosphorus, replacing phospholipid with sulfolipid and reducing phosphorus demand. In this paper, we summarized the updated prospective of the mechanisms by which marine phytoplankton respond to phosphorus limitation as well as the ecological effects of phosphorus limitation on marine ecosystems. The review is believed to be helpful to the relevant research of marine phytoplankton and marine environmental science.