Climate change affects temperatures, sea level, and salinities, all of which can affect fish distributions. In order to assess the impact of climate change on the marine fish communities of Texas, fish diversity response to climate variables was modeled. Leveraging 33 years of gillnet survey data from eight major bays along the coast of Texas, asymptotic Shannon diversity was estimated for each bay, season, and year using rarefaction analysis. This allowed for the estimation of spatial, temporal, and seasonal trends in fish diversity. In order to assess the impact of climate-related variables on the fish communities of Texas, we associated the Shannon diversity index with environmental variables using a repeated measures model approach. We found significant increasing trends in fish diversity across all eight bays in fall and six of eight bays in spring. Among the variables identified as significant, temperature, salinity, and sea level stood out as most important for driving the increase in fish diversity. Our results suggest that observed increases may be attributable to changing habitat availability resulting from sea-level rise and increasing winter temperatures. Mangrove expansion and warmer winters are likely allowing for range expansion by tropical species, driving the observed increase in fish diversity.

气候变化会影响温度，海平面和盐度，所有这些都会影响鱼类的分布。为了评估气候变化对德克萨斯州海鱼群落的影响，对鱼类多样性对气候变量的响应进行了建模。利用来自德克萨斯州沿海八个主要海湾的33年刺网调查数据，使用稀疏度分析估算了每个海湾，季节和年份的渐近香农多样性。这样就可以估算鱼类多样性的空间，时间和季节趋势。为了评估气候相关变量对德克萨斯州鱼类群落的影响，我们使用重复测量模型方法将香农多样性指数与环境变量相关联。我们发现秋季所有八个海湾和春季八个海湾中的六个海湾的鱼类多样性都有显着增加的趋势。在确定为重要的变量中，温度，盐度和海平面对于推动鱼类多样性的增加最为重要。我们的结果表明，观察到的增加可能归因于海平面上升和冬季温度升高导致栖息地可用性的变化。红树林的扩张和冬季的温暖可能使热带物种的范围扩大，从而导致观察到的鱼类多样性的增加。我们的结果表明，观察到的增加可能归因于海平面上升和冬季温度升高导致栖息地可用性的变化。红树林的扩张和冬季的温暖可能使热带物种的范围扩大，从而导致观察到的鱼类多样性的增加。我们的结果表明，观察到的增加可能归因于海平面上升和冬季温度升高导致栖息地可用性的变化。红树林的扩张和冬季的温暖可能使热带物种的范围扩大，从而导致观察到的鱼类多样性的增加。