TITLE:
Functional Diversity of the Fish Community Associated to Soft-Bottoms in the Lagoon of La Paz B.C.S., México
AUTHORS:
Hernandez-Villasana Carlos Samuel, Barjau-González Emelio, López-Vivas Juan Manuel, Armenta-Quintana José Angel, Suárez-Villavicencio Jaime
KEYWORDS:
Coastal Lagoon, Functional Diversity, Functional Traits, Fish Community
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Marine Science,
Vol.10 No.4,
October
12,
2020
ABSTRACT: There has been an increase of community
studies that incorporate the use of functional diversity indices. The
incorporation of these indices in the analysis of marine communities is
recent, however, could contribute with relevant information about the health of
those communities. The lagoon of La Paz is a body of water located in La Paz,
B.C.S., México. Despite its regional importance, there are not recent studies
about its fish communities. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to
analyze the temporal and spatial structure of the functional diversity of fish
communities associated to soft bottoms, from August 2016 to July 2017, as well
as important environmental variables. Functional diversity indices showed significant
differences between months. Spatial analysis did not show significant
differences perhaps due to low variability of the type of substrate.
Temperature showed temporal differences as well. Therefore, temperature may be
a limiting environmental variable for many fish species inhabiting coastal
lagoons.