Environmental Filtering Weakens with Trophic Level in Urban Coastal Ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Urban coastal ecosystems face increasing anthropogenic pressures and environmental variability, yet the consequences for multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem networks remain poorly resolved. Here, we combine environmental DNA metabarcoding, visual surveys, flow cytometry, and environmental measurements to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of marine metazoans, protists, and prokaryotes across estuarine, transitional, and oceanic habitats in Hong Kong's urbanized coastal waters. Using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), we demonstrate that environmental control over community composition weakens systematically at higher trophic levels. The variance explained by seasonal and spatial interaction was highest for prokaryotes (R² = 0.76) and protist

SUBMITTER: Xu W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12915753 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature