Functional trait approaches advance the understanding of biodiversity–ecosystem function (BDEF) relationships and its control by the environmental context. Application of these insights into management remains constrained due to lack of evidence from real-world ecosystems that capture the natural spatial and temporal gradients at which biodiversity and environmental conditions operate. In this study we measured macrofauna community traits, ecosystem processes and abiotic properties at 9 locations during 4 months, spanning a wide gradient in sedimentary habitats and salinity in the Scheldt estuary, and quantified the (a)biotic contribution to sediment community oxygen consumption, as a measure of ecosystem function. We found that functional attributes of the macrofauna community and its effect on bio-irrigation can predict ecosystem function, but especially during the colder period of the year. This result highlights that generalizations about BDEF relationships, and biodiversity loss on ecosystem functions, are limited whenever this temporal component is not acknowledged.

功能特征方法可增进对生物多样性与生态系统功能（BDEF）关系及其在环境环境下的控制的理解。由于缺乏来自现实世界生态系统的证据来捕捉生物多样性和环境条件所处的自然时空梯度，因此将这些见识应用于管理仍然受到限制。在这项研究中，我们测量了4个月期间9个地点的大型动物群落特征，生态系统过程和非生物特性，跨越了Scheldt河口的沉积物生境和盐度的宽梯度，并定量了（a）生物对沉积物社区耗氧量的贡献，如下生态系统功能的度量。我们发现大型动物群落的功能属性及其对生物灌溉的影响可以预测生态系统功能，但尤其是在一年中最冷的时期。该结果表明，只要不承认该时间成分，就对BDEF关系以及生物多样性在生态系统功能上的丧失的概括是有限的。