A FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF WETLAND PLANTS

In this paper we review the search for guilds in plant communities, an d provide a summary of the process, emphasizing five steps: (1) defini ng function, (2) selecting traits which reflect function, (3) screenin g for those traits, (4) constructing trait matrices, and (5) grouping species according to these traits. We illustrate this process for wetl and plant species based upon a matrix of 27 traits and 43 species from across eastern North America. The 43 species were selected to represe nt the widest range of life history types possible as well as both com mon species and nationally rare or endangered species. We found three main functional groups: ruderals, matrix and interstitial species, whi ch we subdivide into a total of seven guilds. The growing number of su ch studies in the literature suggest that this may be an expedient mea sure for conservation biology and a promising one for predictions.