ON THE USE OF THE GUILD CONCEPT IN PLANT ECOLOGY

The original definition of the guild is reiterated and the concept dis cussed and placed in the context of related concepts such as resources and competition. From this conceptual framework the current use of gu ilds in studies of plant community ecology is evaluated. We discuss th e criteria with which species are assigned to guilds, the association of guilds with specific communities, the resource classes on which gui lds are based, and the competitive relationships between species of a guild. We conclude that the guild is presently applied in a much more loose way as compared to its original definition. In particular, the a priori assignment of species to guilds on the basis of the use of wel l-defined resource classes is often relaxed. This obscures the insight that the guild structure may provide in the role of resource partitio ning and competition in structuring the community. A more strict use o f the concept is advocated.