Functional diversity of fishes associated with the shrimp fisheries in the Mexican Pacific

Currently, one of the most relevant topics in ecology is the understanding of the relationship that exists between biological diversity and functional diversity on ecosystem processes. It has been pointed out that key processes in ecosystems depend more on functional diversity than on species diversity. In this research, functional diversity indicators of the fish community of five typical shrimp fishing locations from the Mexican Pacific (northern Gulf of California, Sinaloa-Nayarit, Jalisco-Colima, Michoacan-Guerrero and Gulf of Tehuantepec) are contrasted and described. Functional descriptors were used for analyses such as trophic level, trophic guild, and reproductive guild; associated to habitat like the use of estuarine systems, water column position, and vertical distribution; and morphological descriptors such as fish and caudal fin shapes, among others. The ichthyofauna was grouped into 44 functional groups that under a global context present properties from the three functional diversity hypotheses of larger acceptance. Redundant: observed on groups of species that are dense in tropical zones; singular: on groups formed by a self-characterized single species; and idiosyncratic: a species that is part of a redundant group of an ecosystem, but that is the only representative of a group in other ecosystem.