RT Journal Article T1 Marked Variability in Distance‐Decay Patterns Suggests Contrasting Dispersal Ability in Abyssal Taxa A1 Simon Lledó, Erik A1 Baselga, Andrés A1 Gómez Rodríguez, Carola A1 Metaxas, Anna A1 Amon, Diva J. A1 Bribiesca Contreras, Guadalupe A1 Durden, Jennifer M. A1 Fleming, Bethany A1 Mejía Saenz, Alejandra A1 Taboada Moreno, Sergio A1 Van Audenhaege, Loïc A1 Jones, Daniel O. B. AB Aim. We assess the role of spatial distance and depth difference in shaping beta diversity patterns across abyssal seascape regions. We measured the decrease of faunistic similarity across the northeast Pacific seafloor, to test whether species turnover rates differ between deep and shallow-abyssal biogeographical provinces and whether these patterns vary across functionally or taxonomically different biotic groups. Location. Abyssal NE Pacific Ocean. Time Period. Present. Major Taxa Studied Benthic Invertebrates (13 Phyla). Methods. We examined the relationship between compositional similarity (𝛽sim) and spatial distance, distance-decay, in benthic megafauna communities (animals > 10 mm) based on seabed imagery data (> 36,000 specimens in 402 species) collected across 28 abyssal seascape locations spanning a total of 4000 km. By comparing the statistical parameters (intercept and slope) of decay curves, we investigated whether distance-decay patterns differ (i) between communities above and below the carbonate compensation depth (~4400 m at N Pacific), (ii) among taxa with contrasting life-habits and (ii) across dominant phyla. Results.We found steeper species turnover rates in communities below 4400 m and variations in distance-decay patterns across biotic groups. Turnover was higher for taxa facultatively growing on hard-substratum patches (polymetallic nodules) than for sediment-dwelling or swimming organisms. Cnidaria and Porifera, respectively, depicted the most and least evident spatial decays in community similarity. Main Conclusions. We demonstrate the utility of combining seabed imaging with distance-decay modelling to capture macroecological patterns in poorly explored deep-sea ecosystems. Our results suggest that chemical boundaries associated with depth are a very relevant niche-sorting mechanism driving large-scale beta-diversity patterns and an association between species life-habits and dispersal limitation in abyssal seabed communities. These findings have important implications for biodiversity conservation plans in the deep ocean, amid the need to protect vast abyssal seascape ecosystems from globally rising human threats. PB John Wiley & Sons SN 1466-822X YR 2025 FD 2025-01-14 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118415 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118415 LA eng NO Simon-Lledó, E., Baselga, A., Gómez-Rodríguez, C., Metaxas, A., Amon, D. J., Bribiesca-Contreras, G., Durden, J. M., Fleming, B., Mejía-Saenz, A., Taboada, S., Van Audenhaege, L., & Jones, D. O. B. (2025). Marked Variability in Distance-Decay Patterns Suggests Contrasting Dispersal Ability in Abyssal Taxa. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/GEB.13956 NO This work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council funded Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental impact (SMARTEX) project (grant reference NE/T003537/1). Novel methods for distance-decay analyses used in this study were developed through grant no. PID2020-112935GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to A.B. and C.G.R. D.J.A. received funding from UC Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. J.M.D. was funded by UK Natural Environment Research Council's Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science project (NE-R015953/1) and AtlantiS project (NE/Y005589/1). A.M.S. was funded by laCaixa Foundation (Fellowship Code LCF/BQ/DI21/11860043). NO Natural Environment Research Council (Great Britain) NO University of California, Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory NO Fundación "la Caixa" DS Docta Complutense RD 21 abr 2025