Zoë Jean Kitchel , Aurore Maureaud , Alexa Fredston, Nancy Shackell, Bastien Mérigot, James T Thorson, Laurène Pécuchet, Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, Maria L.D. Palomares, Antonio Esteban Acón, Mark Belchier, Gioacchino Bono, Pierluigi Carbonara, Martin A. Collins, Luis A. Cubillos, Tracey P. Fairweather, Maria Cristina Follesa, Cristina Garciá Ruiz, Maria Teresa Farriols Garau, Germana Garofalo, Igor Isajlović , Johannes N. Kathena, Mariano Koen-Alonso , Porzia Maiorano, Chiara Manfredi, Jurgen Mifsud, Richard L. O’Driscoll, Mario Sbrana, Jón Sólmundsson, Maria Teresa Spedicato, Fabrice Stephenson, Karl-Michael Werner, Daniela V. Yepsen, Walter Zupa , Malin Pinsky

Humans have transformed ecosystems through habitat modification, harvesting, species introduction, and climate change. Changes in species distribution and composition are often thought to induce biotic homogenization, defined as a decline in spatial beta diversity through time. However, it is unclear whether homogenization is common in ocean ecosystems and if changes in beta diversity exhibit linear or more complex dynamics. Here, we assessed patterns of homogenization or its converse (differentiation) across more than 175,000 samples of 2,006 demersal fish species from 34 regions spanning six decades and 20% of the planet’s continental shelf area. While ten regions (29%) recorded significant homogenization, eleven (32%) recorded significant differentiation. Non-monotonic temporal fluctuations in beta diversity occurred in 15 regions, highlighting complex dynamics missed by before-and-after snapshots that can drive spurious conclusions about trends in beta diversity. Fishing pressure and temperature helped explain variance in beta diversity across years and regions. However, the strength and direction of these effects differed by region. Here we showed that, despite intense anthropogenic impacts on the oceans, the majority of demersal marine fish communities do not follow the global homogenization paradigm common in other realms.