A Demonstration of Guild-Based Assembly Rules for a Plant Community, and Determination of Intrinsic Guilds

Assembly rules were sought, as relative constancy in the proportion of species from different guilds that can coexist at a point. The community used was a regularly-mown lawn, sampled at the end of the mowing/regrowth cycle. There was a significant tendency towards constant proportions of representatives from the Graminoid and Forb guilds. E.g., at 2-species points there was one graminoid species plus one forb species more often than expected. This effect was seen whether or not the two bryophyte species were included with the forbs. There was little evidence that the rule was based on grass/legume interactions. Optimisation of the Graminoid vs Forb + bryophyte classification showed that some forbs were better assigned to the «graminoid» guild, apparently because of the role of their laminae in the upper canopy (...)