Species richness, species turnover and functional diversity in nematodes of the deep Mediterranean Sea: searching for drivers at different spatial scales

Understanding how biodiversity varies at different spatial scales and the drivers behind these patterns is a crucial issue in ecology. This is evident for the deep sea, the largest biome of the biosphere, where there is little information available on the spatial and temporal variability of biodiversity. Here, we investigated the variability and potential drivers of species richness, turnover and functional biodiversity of deep-sea nematodes at a depth of 3000 m across different spatial scales and in two periods of contrasting pelagic productivity.