| Functional groups dynamics in marine communities help understanding how perturbations impact the functioning of an ecosystem. It is notably expected that functional groups respond differently to fishing pressure owing to their direct exposure to fishing and interactions between groups (indirect effects). A method was developed, based on an ecomorphological approach focusing on predation functions, to define size- and taxonomy-driven functional groups in demersal fish communities from the Celtic Sea and the North Sea. Eleven functional traits were used to define 12 functional groups in Celtic Sea (based on measurements on 930 individuals from 33 species) and seven groups in North Sea (710 individuals from 22 species). In the Celtic Sea, the functional... |
