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.