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In this paper, we investigate the effect of water temperature on phytoplankton–zooplankton dynamics with Holling type III functional response. Remarkably, growth rate, capture rate, handling time, death rate and Holling parameter are considered to be temperature dependent, which makes the model different from those in the existing related literatures. First, the relationships between model parameters and water temperature are presented. Then we give the positivity and boundedness of the solutions. And parameters dependent equilibrium analysis and stability analysis are obtained, respectively. It shows that when the water temperature is lower or higher than the optimal temperature, the equilibrium density of phytoplankton increases with decreasing capture rate and increasing handling time. Meanwhile, we show that the decrease of capture rate and increase of handing time cause the density of zooplankton also increases without the optimal temperature, while the population of zooplankton tends to decrease with decrease of growth rate. In addition, sensitivity of coexisting equilibrium to the parameters of the phytoplankton–zooplankton model is analyzed. Finally, one parameter bifurcation analysis is done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]