When most people imagine a coral reef, they picture clear, warm, sunny tropical waters. However, the coral communities of Hong Kong live in a vastly different setting. In the shadows of one of the mos...

Abstract. Coral communities in Hong Kong persist under a range of local stressors, including strong subtropical seasonality, chronic low light, and high turbidity, resulting in patchy, compositionally...

Temperature variation at fine scales of minutes to hours and ~ 1–100 m is ubiquitous in marine ecosystems and often exceeds variability at larger scales. However, we know little of how well temperatu...

Ecology is not yet ready for AI—and why that matters

Plastic pollution remains a significant threat to coral reef ecosystems, even within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This study assesses the levels and…

Urban coastal ecosystems face increasing anthropogenic pressures and environmental variability, yet the consequences for multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem networks remain poorly resolved. Here, we combine environmental DNA metabarcoding, visual surveys, flow cytometry, and environmental measurements to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of marine metazoans, protists, and prokaryotes across estuarine, transitional, and oceanic habitats in Hong Kong’s urbanized coastal waters. Using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), we demonstrate that environmental control over community composition weakens systematically at higher trophic levels. The variance explained by seasonal and spatial interaction was highest for prokaryotes (R2 = 0.76) and protists (0.59), but notably lower for benthic fauna (0.41) and bony fish (0.32). Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that oceanic habitats, dominated by heterotrophic prokaryotes, omnivorous fish, and hard corals, supported the most complex and stable multitrophic networks, with an average complexity of 0.54 compared to estuarine (0.23) and transitional habitats (0.29). Structural equation modeling further revealed habitat-specific drivers: temperature exerted the strongest direct effect in estuarine habitats (>0.44), while biotic interactions involving primary producers played a dominant role in oceanic habitats (direct effect >0.28). In contrast, transitional habitats lacked significant environmental or biotic drivers, indicating a system in flux where community dynamics are likely governed by complex variables beyond standard environmental or biotic regulation. These findings demonstrate the gradient-dependent interplay of environmental filtering and biotic regulation in shaping coastal ecosystem stability. Our results also highlight the value of an integrated eDNA-based framework for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem change, providing insights for the management of urban marine environments under global change.

Benthic community structure on present-day coral reefs is often described as rapidly degrading, yet such summative statements do not capture the effects of spatial heterogeneity in communities. We fo...

The west-coast reef has largely escaped the curse of coral bleaching that has blighted the Great Barrier Reef. This year, that’s changed.

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You may never have considered yourself to be one. Why would you? But if you’re reading this, there is more than a likelihood that you are one. If you’re a

Conservationists call for urgent government action as prolonged heatwave affects renowned reef, including Turquoise Bay, Tantabiddi and Bundegi

In 2010, an enormous marine heatwave devastated ocean life in Western Australia. Now another big one is taking hold – and heading towards Ningaloo.

Natural and anthropogenic stressors alter the composition, biomass, and nutritional quality of primary producers and microorganisms, the basal organisms that synthesize the biomolecules essential for...

The ongoing urbanisation of coastlines around the globe greatly impacts biodiversity, including coastal marine fishes. In many places, baseline data o…

Hidden marine heatwaves, associated with ocean eddies that modulate undersea internal waves, threaten coastal ecosystems by driving unexpected sub-surface heating and severe coral bleaching and mortal...

Individual dietary specialization is impacted by development, social learning, genetics, and environment. Here, the authors document European brown bear diet in a multigenerational female sample, find...

A few reefs on the Great Barrier Reef have been largely untouched by bleaching. We found upwellings of cold water are protecting them – for now

Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...

From anthropology to zoology, immersion within communities, cultural settings, and study systems is integral to research and learning (1, 2). Fieldwork, the direct observation and collection of data i...