From hemenway@jeffnet.org Thu Dec 2 00:17:31 1999 Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:50:45 -0700 From: Toby Hemenway Reply-To: permaculture To: permaculture Subject: Alliances and guilds (was: Semiological Issues of Permaculture) John Abdon wrote: >Do you think the "USGS-NPS Vegetation >Mapping Program" concept of 'alliances' are similar in any useful way to >permaculture's notion of 'guilds'? I think you could draw a continuum, based on level of interconnectedness, that goes "alliance-community-guild." Guilds* (sensu Pc, not sensu ecology) are human-designed plant/animal communities. Communities are a controversial concept, as some ecologists believe they are merely a collection of organisms that cluster around the same point on a gradient of living conditions (soil pH, moisture, temp, light, etc.) whereas others argue that they are a patterned, self-organized structure that creates most of its own environment (that's my bet). Alliance, according to a field ecologist I worked with last summer, is a cop-out term designed to avoid the associations of the word "community" that simply means a group of plants who, we don't ask why, all live together. You'll notice that in the USGS-NPS site in John's post, though the bold-face headings call the plant groupings "alliances" in the text they are called "communities." So the revanchism hasn't been total. I use local communities (or alliances, associations, or whatever) as the starting point to design guilds. By beginning with species I know are adapted to local conditions and to each other, I can tweak the groupings, substituting related or structurally similar species that are more suited to my needs and those of the landscape, and then observe if the resulting guild functions well. That's one of about 5 ways to design guilds I know of. So the answer to your question is yes, alliances and communities are a very useful tool, and very similar to guilds. *The use of the term "guild" in permaculture is unfortunate, as ecologists long ago defined "guild" in a related but different way, to mean a group of species that occupy the same niche, as the guild of seed-eating bird species, or of plantkton-eating whales. I think ecology's use better captures the original sense of guild, as in the guild of weavers or goldsmiths-a group of similar organisms all performing the same task. Pc's use is catchy-it's a snappy term, but confusing to ecologists, whom I'd like to see as our allies. I believe permies Eric Toensmeier and Dave Jacke, in their upcoming book on Forest Gardens, avoid the use of guild altogether. How heretical! Toby --- You are currently subscribed to permaculture as: london@metalab.unc.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-permaculture-75156P@franklin.oit.unc.edu