Metacommunity theory and metabarcoding reveal the environmental, spatial, and biotic drivers of meiofaunal communities in sandy beaches

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Abstract

Abstract Sandy beaches are important ecosystems providing coastal protection and recreation, but they face significant threats from human activities and sea level rise. They are inhabited by meiofauna, small benthic invertebrates that are highly abundant and diverse, but are commonly understudied biotic components of beach ecosystems. Here, we investigate the factors shaping meiofaunal metacommunities by employing Generalised Dissimilarity Modelling (GDM) and Joint Species Distribution Modelling (JSDM) to study community turnover and assembly processes. We analysed over 550 meiofauna samples from a >650 km stretch of the southern North Sea coastline using a metabarcoding approach. Our findings reveal that environmental factors, especially Distance from Low Tide and Sediment Grain Size, are important drivers of meiofauna community turnover. This highlights the influence of the gradient from marine to terrestrial habitats and sediment conditions. Spatial factors, which indicate dispersal limitations, also significantly impact community composition, challenging the view that marine meiofauna have broad geographic distributions. The JSDM results show that species sorting by environmental conditions is the dominant process in community assembly with increasing environmental differences between sampling sites, but that biotic associations, or similar environmental preferences, are a major driver of community assembly at sites with similar environmental conditions. Further, we find that spatial factors also significantly influence community assembly across the study region. By facilitating the inference of ecological niches for a high number of meiofaunal taxa, JSDM provides a powerful framework for understanding the ecology of these animals. Our results highlight the importance of considering environmental gradients and dispersal limitations in meiofauna and beach ecosystem research, and future research should aim at adding information on functional traits and biotic interactions under varying environmental conditions to understand meiofauna community dynamics and resilience.

Authors 6

1. Jan‐Niklas Macher corresponding Aachen Department of Environmental Biology Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Leiden University · Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Environmental Biology, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, 12 Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Marine Biodiversity, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Maximilian Pichler

   University of Regensburg

   Affiliation as printed

   Theoretical Ecology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

3. Simon Creer

   Bangor University

   Affiliation as printed

   Molecular Ecology and Evolution Group, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK

4. Alejandro Martínez

   Water Research Institute · National Research Council

   Affiliation as printed

   National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Water Research Institute (IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922, Verbania Pallanza, Italy

5. Diego Fontaneto

   Water Research Institute · National Research Council

   Affiliation as printed

   National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Piazza Marina 61, 90133 Palermo, Italy

   National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Water Research Institute (IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922, Verbania Pallanza, Italy

6. Willem Renema Aachen Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center · University of Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Marine Biodiversity, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden, The Netherlands