Re-evaluating the ‘plankton paradox’ using an interlinked empirical data and a food web model

•Modeling plankton system via combining both seasonal temperature and a food web model with prey preference.•Both intraspecific competition of calanoid copepods and seasonal temperature are the key factors which produce population chaos in the food web model.•Chaotic dynamics in the theoretical mechinistic model and in empirical data may interpret the ‘plankton paradox’.