Active microeukaryotes hold clues of effects of global warming on benthic diversity and connectivity in the coastal sediments

The marine flora and fauna along the China seas include the Indo-West Pacific warm-water fauna and the North Pacific temperate fauna. The latitude of 32 degrees N is recognized as the ecological barrier for benthic fauna in the China Seas. However, the ecological barrier on macrobenthos community gradually weakened because of global warming. Microeukaryotes are major components of marine food webs and can quickly response to environmental changes. We hypothesis that microeukaryotic benthos can stride over the ecological barrier of 32 degrees N from the East China Sea (ECS) to the Yellow Sea (YS) under the global change, but their distribution is still limited by depth gradients between the South China Sea (SCS) and the ESC. Therefore, we investigated the distribution of benthic microeukaryotes in the China Seas using RNA metabarcoding. Higher OTU richness and phylogenetic diversity were detected in the SCS than those in the YS and ECS. The YS and ECS communities clustered together firstly and then clustered with the SCS community. Unexpectedly, communities from the 33 degrees N in the YS clustered with those from the ECS. Similar pattern was also detected for Cercozoa, Diatomea, Amoebozoa and Fungi. These findings indicated that microeukaryotic benthos strode over the ecological barrier of 32 degrees N under the global change. Source-sink analyses indicated more than 50% sources of the 33 degrees N community were attributed to the ECS community, while only 12.5% from the YS community. Depth, temperature and latitude showed significant influence on communities in the China Seas. This study highlights the response of active microeukaryotes to the global warming in the coastal sediments.

Automated summary

This study investigates the distribution of benthic microeukaryotes in the China Seas and finds that they can stride over the ecological barrier of 32 degrees N. The study also highlights the significant influence of depth, temperature, and latitude on communities in the China Seas.