Temporal Diversity of Malacofauna Community in Seagrass Meadow Meadows of Mecoacan Coastal Lagoon, Gulf of Mexico
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Juan Carlos Rubio-Polania [1] ; Everardo Barba-Macías [1] ; Nadia Elizabeth Rivera-Guzmán [1] ; Cinthia Trinidad-Ocaña [1]
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[1] El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
México
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- Localización: Thalassas: An international journal of marine sciences, ISSN 0212-5919, Vol. 42, Nº. 1, 2026
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
Seasonal environmental fluctuations critically influence the structure and function of mollusk communities in seagrass ecosystems. This study investigated the taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic mollusks in a Halodule wrightii meadow in the Mecoacán coastal lagoon (SW Gulf of Mexico) across dry, rainy, and Nortes (cold front) seasons in 2017. We analyzed community structure, local alpha and beta diversity, functional diversity indices, and their relationship with satellite-derived environmental variables. A total of 2,662 individuals (22 species) were collected, revealing a stark disparity between numerical dominance by gastropods (92.3% of abundance, chiefly Vitta virginea) and biomass dominance by bivalves (58.5%, peaking at 74% during Nortes). While overall community structure showed no significant broad-scale spatiotemporal differences, natural groupings identified by cluster analysis were statistically distinct. Alpha diversity was highest during Nortes, whereas functional diversity trends differed, peaking in the dry/rainy seasons for richness (FRic) but with dispersion (FDis) and divergence (FDiv) influenced by the data type (abundance vs. biomass). High beta diversity (βBRAY > 0.70) was primarily driven by species turnover. The BIOENV analysis indicated that community structure was best explained by a combination of geographic position (latitude/longitude) and productivity-related variables (FPAR, LAI), while local diversity was strongly linked to seagrass biomass. The co-occurrence of low functional evenness and high divergence suggests a specialized community with efficient resource partitioning but low resilience. These findings underscore the complex interplay between environmental gradients and seagrass habitat structure in shaping mollusk communities, providing critical insights for conserving biodiversity in tropical coastal lagoons under climate variability
