DISCUSSION
Whole organism community DNA (wocDNA) metabarcoding enabled characterizing the soil microarthropod assemblages of the understudied montane forests of Cyprus and provided insights into the drivers of metacommunity structure across the topographically complex region of Troodos. By integrating community metabarcoding with high-resolution topoclimatic and landscape information, we revealed that environmental filtering induced by forest habitat type and topoclimatic heterogeneity controls different facets of Troodos soil biodiversity (α, β diversity and community uniqueness), while habitat connectivity mediates dispersal dynamics across the highly fragmented Golden Oak habitat. β diversity patterns were very similar at OTU and ASV levels, but α diversity varied, with OTU richness following an altitudinal gradient and ASV richness a longitudinal one, likely indicating a decline of genetic diversity eastwards due to anthropogenic disturbance. Therefore, species richness presumably responded to niche-based processes, while haplotype richness to historical contingencies. Our results demonstrate the utility of combining OTUs with ASVs obtained by stringent filtering for characterising diversity patterns of complex assemblages across heterogeneous landscapes.