Functional synonyms and environmental homologues: an empirical approach to guild delimitation

Dale, Mike B. (2001) Functional synonyms and environmental homologues: an empirical approach to guild delimitation. Community Ecology, 2 (1). pp. 67-79. ISSN 1585-8553

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Abstract

This paper presents a procedure for identifying guilds using species-in-stand data. Based on a linguistic analogy relating synonymity with functional equivalence, it develops a dissimilarity coefficient for clustering species which is suitable for measuring strength of synonymity. This coefficient combines two distinct aspects of synonymity - lack of co-occurrence of two species and similarity of context of other species where either species does occur. Synonymity is further restricted through a stand clustering to avoid confounding with environmental heterogeneity. The method is applied to data from Eucalyptus communities from sand dunes on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. Some possible extensions are considered.

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