BioConcepts

guildGilde (ger.)

• A group of species which have similar roles in the same community. (OED)
  category community

  1903

  Plants of quite different modes of life […] depend on other plants for their existence. Each of these groups of plants has […] characteristic traits […] which always remain unchanged in their leading features. Such oecological groups are termed guilds [Orig.: Genossenschaften].

  Fisher, W.R. (transl.) (1903). Schimper, A.F.W., Plant-Geography upon a Physiological Basis: 192.

  1920

  we may have identical or nearly identical “societies” composed of the same species within different “associations,” and what have been sometimes, though not very appropriately, called “guilds” of the same dependent life-forms, such for instance as lianes, composed in some cases of the same, in other cases of quite different species, in different types of forest

  Tansley, A.G. (1920). The classification of vegetation and the concept of development. J. Ecol. 8, 118-149: 127.

  1967

  A guild is defined as a group of species that exploit the same class of environmental resources in a similar way.

  Root, J.B. (1967). The niche exploitation pattern of the blue-grey gnatcatcher. Ecol. Monogr. 37, 317-350: 335; cf. Hawkins, C.P. & MacMahon, J.A. (1989). Guilds: the multiple meaning of a concept. Ann. Rev. Ent. 34, 423-451.

  1982

  guild A group of species having similar ecological resource requirements and foraging strategies, and therefore having similar roles in the community.

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 105.