New paper on ecosystem engineering and biodiversity.

I am excited to share my newest publication, “Marine biodiversity was greater in the presence of ecosystem engineers throughout the Phanerozoic,” with Simon Darroch and William Gearty, which is officially published in Nature Communications today 🪱 🪸

I’ve always been interested in ecosystem engineers – animals whose behaviours have such effects on resource availability that they impact biodiversity and community ecology. As paleoecologists, we often talk about ecosystem engineers in the fossil record as keystone species who have critical roles in shaping biodiversity, and even hypothesize that some ecosystem engineers are able to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. About four years ago, I started writing a fellowship proposal that essentially asked: Is that actually true? Does it stand the test of time that is Earth history?

In this paper, we looked at communities where bioturbators 🪱 and reef-builders 🪸 – the Earth’s powerhouse marine ecosystem engineers – lived throughout the Phanerozoic (the last ~540 million years). Treating the Paleobiology Database as data in a meta-analysis, we statistically compared their diversity levels to communities where those ecosystem engineers were absent. We paid special attention to mass extinctions and hyperthermals (extreme global warming events) to understand how climate change impacts the biodiversity effects of ecosystem engineers.

TLDR: 📈 For both bioturbators and reef-builders, we find throughout the Phanerozoic that biodiversity is almost always significantly greater in communities with ecosystem engineers, even when controlling for a variety of sampling and environmental biases. 🔥 During intervals of climatic extremes – like rapid global warming events – positive effects of ecosystem engineers tend to collapse. We hypothesize that ecosystem engineers can do little with environments that are increasingly inhospitable, especially when they are physiologically stressed themselves. However, not all mass extinctions see ecosystem engineering effects disappear, likely suggesting ecosystem engineers persisted in regions of hospitable oceans until the planet re-stabilized.

🌐 What do we think this means for current and future climate change? Ecosystem engineers are good for biodiversity, but this does not mean they can overcome extreme, rapid warming. These animals have had critical roles for supporting biodiversity for over 500 million years, and our current climate change trajectory is going to impede ecosystem engineers from playing those roles effectively.

This paper feels like the real cornerstone of my research during my Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship, so it feels fitting (and bittersweet!) to have this out just as my fellowship is wrapping up. Can’t wait to share what’s next soon!