Metabarcoding reveals seasonal and spatial patterns of arthropod community assemblages in two contrasting habitats

The rapid and unsustainable loss of global biodiversity is one of the most serious crises facing mankind. Although the debate surrounding human-induced biodiversity crisis has mainly focused on vertebrates, population declines may be even greater in small organisms such as terrestrial arthropods. We aimed to determine spatio-temporal patterns of diversity and distribution of the arthropod communities in two geographically close but ecologically contrasting and highly threatened ecosystems: deserts and oases.