Species traits are a new data currency to enhance our understanding of ecological patterns and processes. Trait‐based studies of fishes are numerous in comparison with other animal groups, reflecting the diversity of fish forms and functions they provide to aquatic ecosystems. We conduct a retrospective examination of literature to identify knowledge gaps and provide guidance for future research in trait‐based fish ecology. We apply an automated text mining and topic modelling to track the evolution of research topics within peer‐reviewed articles of functional traits in marine and freshwater fishes published over the past half century, explore the inter‐connections among those topics and identify emerging avenues for investigation. By mapping the topic landscape of the literature, 16 latent topics emerged that vary in their prevalence. Our results show a decline in the frequency of studies using reproductive traits to model and explore the way fish allocate energy for reproduction, and increase in studies reporting functional diversity metrics and utilizing the concept of multivariate functional space. Research focused on contributions of fish traits to ecosystem functioning also has increased in frequency. We revealed large gaps in information between growing and decreasing topics and that these gaps were derived from different types of traits being considered. We suggest that scientists break‐free from the traditions of their research field by targeting investigations that: (a) apply functional diversity metrics to a broader assortment of traits, (b) focus on traits influencing energy allocation to growth/reproduction and (c) integrate trophic‐web and behavioural studies with other topics.

中文翻译：

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基于特征的鱼类生态学：使用主题模型对文献趋势和知识差距进行定量评估

物种特征是一种新的数据货币，可以增强我们对生态模式和过程的理解。与其他动物群体相比，基于特征的鱼类研究数量众多，反映了它们为水生生态系统提供的鱼类形态和功能的多样性。我们对文献进行回顾性研究，以确定知识差距，并为基于性状的鱼类生态学的未来研究提供指导。我们应用自动文本挖掘和主题建模来跟踪过去半个世纪发表的有关海洋和淡水鱼类功能性状的同行评审文章中研究主题的演变，探索这些主题之间的相互联系并确定新的调查途径. 通过绘制文献的主题景观，出现了 16 个潜在主题，它们的流行程度各不相同。我们的结果表明，使用生殖特征来建模和探索鱼类为繁殖分配能量的方式的研究频率下降，报告功能多样性指标和利用多元功能空间概念的研究增加。专注于鱼类特征对生态系统功能贡献的研究也越来越频繁。我们揭示了增长和减少主题之间的信息存在巨大差距，这些差距源于所考虑的不同类型的特征。我们建议科学家通过有针对性的调查来打破其研究领域的传统：(a) 将功能多样性指标应用于更广泛的特征分类，