Small variations in environmental parameters can substantially alter species composition, but the extent to which different species respond to these changes remains obscure. A synoptic survey of seagrass-associated faunal communities was performed across the Gulf of Mexico using otter trawls coupled with seagrass and water quality assessments. The abundance of eight central seagrass inhabitants, representing a range of functional groups, were quantified to identify factors that best predicted their prevalence across environmental gradients and the consistency of these ecological relationships. Seagrass density and drift algal biomass generally had the strongest influence on animal abundance (40–67%), although relationships with drift algae were species specific and seemingly related to faunal size and mobility. Abundances of free-swimming pinfish, pigfish, and silver perch were negatively related to drift algae biomass (0.7, 0.7, and 1.0% Δ per 1 g·m⁻² drift algae, respectively), whereas the abundance of pipefish (Syngnathus spp.) and brown/pink shrimp (Penaeus spp.) tended to be positively related to algal biomass (0.8 and 1.6% Δ per 1 g·m⁻² drift algae). Shrimp abundances increased by 3.6% per 1% increase in light attenuation while the abundance of a higher-order visual predator, silver perch, negatively responded to light attenuation (1.1% Δ per 1% Δ vertical light attenuation). Additionally, bivariate plots of organismal abundance and salinity or canopy height indicated a unimodal relationship with peaks in abundance associated with intermediate values for several species. This study explored the extent species and functional groups responded to variation in key elements of the abiotic and biotic environment, providing insight into community development and offering resource managers quantitative targets for aspects of habitat quality.

环境参数的微小变化会大大改变物种的组成，但是不同物种对这些变化的反应程度仍然不清楚。利用水獭拖网结合海草和水质评估，对墨西哥湾海草相关的动物群落进行了概要调查。对代表一系列功能组的八个中央海草居民的数量进行了量化，以确定能够最好地预测其在环境梯度中的流行程度以及这些生态关系的一致性的因素。海草密度和漂流藻生物量通常对动物丰度影响最大（40-67％），尽管与漂流藻的关系是物种特异性的，并且似乎与动物的大小和迁移率有关。大量游动的fish鱼，分别为^-2漂流藻类，而丰富的pipe鱼（Synnathus spp。）和棕色/粉红色虾（Penaeus spp。）与藻类生物量呈正相关（每1 g·m ^-2的Δ分别为0.8和1.6％Δ）漂流藻类）。虾的丰度每增加1％，光衰减就增加3.6％，而高阶视觉捕食者银鲈的光响应则对光衰减产生负面影响（每1％Δ垂直光衰减为1.1％Δ）。此外，有机物丰度和盐度或冠层高度的双变量图表明，与几个物种的中间值相关的丰度峰值具有单峰关系。这项研究探索了物种和功能组对非生物和生物环境关键要素变化的响应程度，提供了对社区发展的见识，并为资源管理者提供了栖息地质量方面的定量目标。