The Portuguese continental coast is influenced by several oceanographic processes and is located near the confluence of three biogeographic realms (from the North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Mediterranean). Given these features, the topography of the Portuguese coast, possible variations in fishing effort and reported increasing sea surface temperature in the last decades, we hypothesized that changes in marine communities in space and time occurred since 1990. In this study, research survey data collected yearly along the Portuguese continental slope (20–500 m deep) from 1990 to 2016 were analysed with the objective of identifying spatio-temporal changes. Latitude and depth were found to play a major role in communities’ spatial differentiation, probably associated to temperature, and three ecological areas were defined (north, southwest and south). In the studied period, Macroramphosus spp. abundance showed a marked decrease in all areas whereas Sparids increased in abundance in the south. Despite these major changes and fluctuations in species abundance over time no major trends in communities were observed. Fishing activity, environmental conditions (including climate change) and biotic factors are all drivers possibly responsible for those changes.

葡萄牙大陆海岸受到几个海洋学过程的影响，位于三个生物地理领域（来自北大西洋，南大西洋和地中海）的汇合处附近。鉴于这些特征，葡萄牙海岸的地貌，捕捞努力的可能变化以及最近几十年来报道的海面温度升高，我们假设自1990年以来海洋群落的时空发生了变化。在本研究中，收集了研究调查数据为了确定时空变化，分析了1990年至2016年葡萄牙大陆坡（深20-500 m）的年度变化。发现纬度和深度在社区的空间分化中起主要作用，可能与温度有关，并定义了三个生态区域（北，西南和南部）。在研究期间巨磷菌属。丰度在所有区域都显着下降，而南部的Sparids则在增加。尽管存在这些重大变化和物种丰富度随时间的波动，但未观察到社区的重大趋势。捕鱼活动，环境条件（包括气候变化）和生物因素都是造成这些变化的原因。