Shelf and deep-water soft-bottom macrofauna were explored in the western Gulf of Mexico in terms of species and functional trait assemblages. Their variation was analysed as functions of depth and time, and the relationship with sea-bottom environmental conditions was examined to disentangle their association with potential environmental drivers. Four consecutive cruises (two per year, at the end of the dry and rainy seasons) were performed during 2016–2017 at 27 fixed stations distributed from 42 to 3565 m depth. Changes in macrofauna composition were tested considering species and functional trait assemblages. Environmental variables associated with sediment features (i.e., grain structure, organic matter, pH, redox), oceanographic conditions (i.e., temperature, dissolved oxygen, particulate organic carbon flux) and potential contaminants (i.e., hydrocarbons and metals) were analysed to identify potential drivers that would shape the structure of macrofauna assemblages. The results suggest that the structures of both species and functional trait assemblages change according to depth and show temporal variation in composition at seasonal and interannual scales. The effect of temporal variation represented about 12% of total variation in the assemblages (11.4 for species and 12.5% for functional-traits). Different patterns of spatial and temporal variation between shelf and deep benthic communities were observed. Variation in species assemblages on the shelf were related to the variation in lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the fine sand ratio. In the deep benthos, particulate carbon flux showed high correlation with the spatial and temporal variation in species assemblage. In the deep benthos the changes in the species assemblage between the dry and the rainy seasons and the interannual variation were highly correlated with particulate organic carbon input in the area.

就物种和功能性状组合而言，在墨西哥湾西部地区研究了架子和深水软底大型动物。根据深度和时间的函数分析了它们的变化，并研究了它们与海底环境条件的关系，以弄清它们与潜在环境驱动因素的关系。2016-2017年期间，在27个固定站上进行了四次连续巡游（每年两次，在雨季和雨季结束时进行），固定站的深度从42到3565 m。考虑物种和功能性状组合，测试了大型动物组成的变化。与沉积物特征（即谷物结构，有机物，pH，氧化还原），海洋条件（即温度，溶解氧，有机碳颗粒通量）和潜在污染物（即 碳氢化合物和金属）进行了分析，以确定可能会影响大型动物群落结构的潜在驱动因素。结果表明，物种和功能性状组合的结构都随深度而变化，并且在季节和年际尺度上显示出成分的时间变化。时间变化的影响约占组合总变化的12％（物种为11.4，功能性状为12.​​5％）。观察到了架子和深层底栖生物群落之间的时空变化的不同模式。架子上物种组合的变化与铅，多环芳烃和细砂比的变化有关。在深层底栖生物中，颗粒碳通量与物种组合的时空变化高度相关。