Abstract Objective We focused on the fish communities collected seasonally and interannually from the Minjiang estuary (MJE), China, to improve our understanding of the temporal dynamics of fish communities in estuarine ecosystems and their responses to environmental changes. Methods Fishery data were collected across four seasons in 2006 and 2016, along with nine functional traits of fishes related to their ecology, life history, and morphology. Community-weighted mean trait values were calculated to describe the functional trait composition of the fish communities. Functional richness and redundancy were calculated to describe the functional diversity of the communities. Results Our results showed that the functional trait composition of the fish communities in the MJE substantially changed at seasonal and interannual scales. The variations were directly related to community-weighted mean trait values and were indirectly related to environmental variables. The data in 2016 showed lower species richness and functional redundancy but higher functional richness compared with the 2006 data. The changes in species richness had a high influence on functional richness but no significant effect on functional redundancy. Conclusions Considering the interannual changes in species richness, functional richness, and functional redundancy, we proposed that the stability of the fish communities in the MJE has declined over time. Our findings provide insights into the seasonal and interannual dynamics of the fish communities in the MJE and evidence that a trait-based approach is necessary in making priority conservation policies for fishes.
Li et al. (Sun,) studied this question.