Despite mollusk species play important ecological functions in estuaries, most studies of their assemblage’s variations are based on traditional taxonomical approaches. Biological trait analysis is used in the present work to explore the relationships of the functional composition of mollusks with the environmental gradient along a coastal lagoon of the Southern Gulf of Mexico. Sampling was conducted monthly during a year in soft bottoms and subtidal stilt roots of red mangrove at six sampling sites along the lagoon. In total 24 mollusc species were collected and fitted to a particular category of three biological traits. Spatio-temporal variability of the functional composition of molluscs and their relationships with environmental variables were assessed using three approaches. Functional variations of the molluscan assemblages were detected along the lagoon using the three approaches, showing significant correlations to salinity. Nonetheless, the functional groups (FG) and the community weighed (CWM) mean traits approaches showed a clearer spatial pattern of the functional composition than the functional diversity (FD) approach The FG and the CWM approaches used in the present study could help to broadening the ecological studies of the estuarine systems of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly those aimed to assess the relations between the biological components and environmental variables in order to assess functioning of these ecosystems.

尽管软体动物物种在河口中起着重要的生态功能，但大多数关于其种类变化的研究都是基于传统的分类方法。在本工作中使用了生物学特性分析来探索软体动物的功能成分与墨西哥南部海湾沿海泻湖沿岸环境梯度之间的关系。一年中每月在泻湖沿岸的六个采样点对红树林的软底和潮间带高跷根进行采样。总共收集了24种软体动物物种，并适应了三种生物特征的特定类别。软体动物功能成分的时空变异性及其与环境变量的关系用三种方法进行了评估。使用三种方法，沿着泻湖检测了软体动物组合的功能变化，显示出与盐度的显着相关性。但是，功能组（FG）和社区权重（CWM）的平均特征方法比功能多样性（FD）的方法显示出更清晰的功能组成空间格局。本研究中使用的FG和CWM的方法可以帮助拓宽墨西哥湾河口系统的生态研究，特别是那些旨在评估生物成分与环境变量之间的关系以评估这些生态系统功能的研究。