  We study LFD, a base logic of functional dependence introduced by Baltag and
van Benthem (2021) and its connections with the guarded fragment GF of
first-order logic. Like other logics of dependence, the semantics of LFD uses
teams: sets of permissible variable assignments. What sets LFD apart is its
ability to express local dependence between variables and local dependence of
statements on variables.
  Known features of LFD include decidability, explicit axiomatization, finite
model property, and a bisimulation characterization. Others, including the
complexity of satisfiability, remained open so far. More generally, what has
been lacking is a good understanding of what makes the LFD approach to
dependence computationally well-behaved, and how it relates to other decidable
logics. In particular, how do allowing variable dependencies and guarding
quantifiers compare as logical devices?
  We provide a new compositional translation from GF into LFD, and conversely,
we translate LFD into GF in an `almost compositional' manner. Using these two
translations, we transfer known results about GF to LFD in a uniform manner,
yielding, e.g., tight complexity bounds for LFD satisfiability, as well as
Craig interpolation. Conversely, e.g., the finite model property of LFD
transfers to GF. Thus, local dependence and guarding turn out to be intricately
entangled notions.
