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How are communities organized? To what extent are species evenly spread out in niche/resource space? Do clusters of functionally similar species exist? If so, are such guilds merely a result of built-in design constraints on consumer species and/or natural gaps in resource space? Or, can guild structure evolve as a means of reducing diffuse competition? (Guilds are presumably arenas of intense interspecific competition with strong interactions within guilds but weak interactions between members of different guilds. A community without guild structure would have greater diffuse competition than one with guild structure.) Do more diverse communities have more guild structure than simpler communities? What are the effects of guild structure on the assembly, structure and diversity of communities? Guild structure may actually foster diversity by means of competitive mutualisms arising from the indirect effects between species that belong to different guilds.
Eric R. Pianka (Wed,) studied this question.
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