Page 111 - 《水产学报》2025年第8期

上官明珠，等 水产学报, 2025, 49(8): 089309

Beta diversity patterns and its driving factors of the northern margin
mangrove macrobenthos community in China

SHANGGUAN Mingzhu , HU Chengye , WANG Jing , FANG Xuehe , ZHOU Zeyu ,
LIU Yongtian , LI Yi , ZHOU Xin , SHUI Bonian *
Fisheries College, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316000, China

Abstract: Beta diversity can explain the changes inman species composition on the spatial and temporal scales, which is a hot
issue in the field of biodiversity research. However, the patterns and drivers of the beta diversity in mangrove ecosystems are
still unclear, especially in mangrove macrobenthic ecosystems in China, and their underlying processes were understudied. To
explore the patterns and driving factors of beta diversity of macrobenthos, and reveal the underlying processes of community
assembly, we investigated macrobenthic community composition in individual mangroves in Yanpu Bay, Aojiang Estuary,
Oujiang Estuary, and Ximen Island mangroves, which located in the northern margin of China. This study used Baselga’s
approach of beta diversity partitioning based on the Sørensen dissimilarity index, and decomposed beta diversity into turnover
and nestedness components to better understand the patterns behind beta diversity. We sampled the macrobenthic organisms
and corresponding environmental data (e.g., water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, sediment factors) and latitude data
about four mangroves that are in the northern margin of China. We calculated the beta diversity of macrobenthic communities
and quantified the relative contributions of turnover and nestedness to beta diversity. In addition, the Mantel test and multiple
regression on distance matrices (MRM) analysis and variation partitioning analysis (VPA) were employed to determine the
effect of environmental variables and spatial distance on beta diversity and its components of macrobenthic communities. These
methods further revealed the role of environmental filtering and dispersal limitation in community assembly. The results
showed that ① There were significant differences in species composition of macrobenthos among different mangroves
(P<0.01). The contribution of mangrove turnover components to beta diversity increased with increasing latitude, and it domin-
ated the community beta diversity, indicating that they were caused by the replacement of species in space or between com-
munities. ② The beta diversity increased with the increase of spatial geographical distance, and the similarity of species com-
position showed an obvious distance attenuation pattern (Mantel test: P<0.05), it means that the dispersal limitation affected the
species composition of the community. ③ Multiple regression on distance matrices (MRM) analysis showed that sediment silt
content is a key environmental factor driving beta diversity of macrobenthic communities. Moreover, the results also indicate
that environmental filtration and dispersal limitation played important roles in the community assembly process.This study
demonstrates that environmental and spatial factors jointly drive the patterns of beta diversity of macrobenthos communities in
mangroves, and environmental filtering and dispersal limitation are important regulatory mechanisms in the process of com-
munity assembly. In addition, this study can lay a theoretical foundation for the formation and maintenance mechanism of spe-
cies diversity of mangrove macrobenthos community in the northern margin of China.
Key words: macrobenthos; beta diversity; mangrove; turnover; nestedness; community assembly; environmental filtration
Corresponding author: SHUI Bonian. E-mail: shuibonian@zjou.edu.cn
Funding projects: National Natural Science Foundation of China (42306188); Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Founda-
tion (LQ21C030006); Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang (2022J006); Zhejiang Uni-
versity Student Science and Technology Innovation Activity Plan (2022R411A004)

https://www.china-fishery.cn 中国水产学会主办 sponsored by China Society of Fisheries
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