Classifying species into groups based on taxonomic relationship and functions are objective approaches to evaluate environmental and anthropogenic influences on coastal fishes. We evaluated temporal (1993–1995 and 2012–2015) changes in the taxonomic and functional indices in three zones of a tropical bay heavily impacted over the recent decades. We tested the hypothesis that both indices decrease over time as result of the environmental degradation. A decrease in the taxonomic richness and abundance was observed mainly of the inner zone. The functional structure remained relatively stable, but the functional originality decreased significantly between the two periods. This functional loss is of particular concern because the loss of species with unique treats may generate a series of ecosystem damage. This information tells us that the use of functional indices is essential to complement taxonomic assessments and to detect a more detailed understanding of the real dimension of biodiversity loss in impacted environments.

根据分类关系和功能将物种分为几类是评估环境和人为因素对沿海鱼类影响的客观方法。我们评估了近几十年来受到严重影响的热带海湾三个区域的分类学和功能指数的时间变化（1993–1995和2012–2015）。我们检验了以下假设：由于环境恶化，两个指标均会随时间降低。主要在内部区域观察到分类学丰富度和丰度的下降。功能结构保持相对稳定，但两个时期之间的功能独创性显着下降。这种功能丧失尤其令人担忧，因为具有独特对待的物种的丧失可能会产生一系列的生态系统破坏。