Environmental DNA Metabarcoding Reveals Divergent Patterns of Biodiversity, Community Assembly, and Environmental Sensitivity Across Taxa in Adjacent Rivers.

ABSTRACT: The differentiated responses of biological groups to environmental change are central to river ecosystem management; however, the shared and distinct environmental selection processes that shape their spatial patterns remain understudied. We investigated two adjacent rivers with contrasting environmental conditions and applied eDNA metabarcoding to characterize the eukaryotic plankton and fish communities. The alpha diversity showed no significant river-to-river difference for either group, but beta diversity differed strongly, indicating high spatial turnover. Both groups exhibited distance-decay relationships, which were stronger in plankton, whose community assembly was mainly stochastic; in contrast, fish assembly was predominantly deterministic. Community variation in both groups was

SUBMITTER: Wei Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12730359 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature