Stochastic processes, species interactions and environmental factors jointly shape protistan communities in drainages across the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration

As crucial components in aquatic ecosystems, the interaction and assembly processes of protists communities are rarely illuminated in an area under seriously anthropogenic disturbance. To better understand the mechanisms, we used the environmental DNA sequencing of 18S rDNA to investigate the community assembly, the influences of environmental factors and species interactions on protists community in the drainages across PRDUA during summer. In this work, the interaction and assembly processes of protists communities in the drainages across Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRDUA) were investigated.