AbstractWe carried out experiments during an expedition (14 August to 14 September, 2007) that covered up to 250 000 km2 to investigate the effects of solar UV radiation (UVR, 280–400 nm) on the photosynthetic carbon fixation of tropical phytoplankton assemblages in surface seawater of the South China Sea. From coastal to pelagic surface seawaters, UV‐B (280–315 nm) caused similar inhibition, while UV‐A (315–400 nm) induced photosynthetic inhibition increased from coastal to offshore waters. UV‐B resulted in an inhibition by up to 27% and UV‐A by up to 29%. Under reduced levels of solar radiation with heavy overcast, UV‐A resulted in enhanced photosynthetic carbon fixation by up to 25% in coastal waters where microplankton was abundant. However, such a positive impact was not observed in the offshore waters where piconanoplankton was more abundant. The daily integrated inhibition of UV‐A reached 4.3% and 13.2%, and that of UV‐B reached 16.5% and 13.5%, in the coastal and offshore waters, respectively.