Marine oil and gas development markedly impacts offshore ecosystems, and understanding nekton community dynamics in production areas is essential for sustainable fisheries management. However, limited research exists on the structural characteristics and environmental factors influencing nekton communities in offshore oil and gas production zones. Therefore, we investigated nekton community structure through surveys during four consecutive cruises over 2 years in waters southwest of Weizhou Island in the Beibu Gulf. We collected 250 nekton species representing 19 orders, 91 families, and 156 genera, with Perciformes constituting the largest group. Dominant species included small- to medium-sized benthic fish: Parargyrops edita, Metapenaeopsis barbata, and Leiognathus ruconius. Diversity indices showed minimal variation across cruises except spring 2023, which exhibited notably lower diversity. Abundance–biomass curves indicated community disturbance in all seasons, particularly during spring 2023 and autumn 2024. Hierarchical cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling revealed two distinct community groups, with intergroup dissimilarity primarily driven by Parargyrops edita, Metapenaeopsis barbata, Leiognathida, Gobiidae, and Loligo. The results of Redundancy Analysis (RDA) demonstrated that the most significant factors influencing the community structure of nekton on each voyage exhibited a certain degree of variation. Nevertheless, overall, water depth, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll a were the primary environmental factors affecting the community structure of nekton in the southwestern waters of Weizhou Island. In certain seasons, suspended solids and petroleum also exerted influence. This research provides scientific reference materials for managing offshore fishery communities and promoting coordinated marine development.
Zhou et al. (Mon,) studied this question.