Water depth shapes the community composition rather than the species richness of deep-sea benthic ciliates

We hypothesize that, in the deep-sea, water depth shapes the benthic ciliate community composition rather than their species richness. Herein, the distribution patterns and drivers of benthic ciliate communities of a deep-sea plain, a seamount and a trench with water depths ranging from 800 m down to 6600 m were evaluated by high throughput eDNA sequencing and statistical analyses.