An approach to analyzing environmental drivers to shape spatial variations in body-size structure of biofilm-dwelling protozoa during an annual cycle in marine ecosystems

As an inherent trait, body-size structure has been used to summarize functional features of a community instead of taxonomic resolutions due to the high redundancy for bioassessment. In this study, the multivariate approaches were used to determine the environmental drivers to the spatial variation in body-size structure based on an annual dataset of biofilm-dwelling protozoa. Samples were monthly collected at four stations within a gradient of pollution in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China during a 1-year cycle. The second-stage (2STAGE) clustering and ordination analyses demonstrated that the annual patterns were significantly different among four sampling stations. Mantel analysis showed the spatial variations in body-size structures of the protozoa were significantly correlated with the water quality status along the pollution gradient. Best matching analysis revealed that the potential environmental drivers to shape the spatial difference in body-size structure may be pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients (e.g., soluble phosphates, ammonia and nitrates). It is suggested that the multivariate approaches used may determine the environmental drivers to shape the spatial variations in body-size structure of biofilm-dwelling protozoa in marine ecosystems.