A functional perspective of nematode assemblages as proxy of quality in tropical estuarine tidal flats.

Functional aspects of biological communities influence ecosystem processes and it is urgent to understand how human disturbances affect functional diversity and ecosystem functions and services. Our purpose was to address the use of different functional metrics of nematode assemblages to evaluate the ecological status of tropical estuaries subjected to different human activities, aiming to advance and improve the knowledge about the usefulness of functional attributes as indicators of environmental quality. Three approaches were compared: functional diversity indexes, single trait, and multi traits using the Biological Traits Analysis.