Evolution and effects of ecosystem engineers

Ecosystem engineers are organisms whose activities impact resource availability in their communities, usually by changing either the physical characteristics of their environments or my modifying the flow of nutrients. These effects can often have major effects on community ecology, making ecosystem engineers one of the most important ecological groups of organisms to study for those of us interested in biotic interactions. My interest on ecosystem engineering broadly falls under two themese: their impact on long-term biodiversity dynamics, and their importance during climate catastrophes.

Ecosystem engineers and biodiversity dynamics

As palaeontologists, we often refer back to global biodiversity curves like the one above to understand macroevolution over the Phanerozoic. But what do our global biodiversity actually reflect? In essence, they are the aggregates of local biodiversity and community ecology. We are starting to understand more and more that these more local-scale processes are profoundly important for interpreting global-scale changes.

Ecosystem engineers come into play in this story because of their outsized impacts on community-level ecological and biodiversity dynamics. Palaeontologists have often hypothesized, for example, that the rise of ecosystem engineers through the Phanerozoic boosted overall biodiversity. But did this actually happen, and how would we find out without being able to directly observe ecosystem engineering processes? And if ecosystem engineers have long exerted significant controls on biodiversity through time, what does this mean for how other evolutionary innovations that influence biotic interactions might shape the evolution of global biodiversity? Stay tuned…!

Ecosystem engineers, climate change, and nature-based solutions

Ecosystem engineers also present an interesting avenue for climate change mitigation. Consider, for example, the reefs and sea grass that have been proposed and newly implemented to assist in coastal protection. Or, on land, the reintroduction of beavers into their historical habitats in the UK to mitigate flooding. These are examples of ecosystem engineers as powerful nature-based solutions, and these types of animals have long been hypothesized to be effective natural ways to ameliorate environmental stress for other organisms. However, long-term effectiveness of ecosystem engineers as stress mitigators is not well known, but the responses and effects of ecosystem engineers during hyperthermals and mass extinctions may hold clues! We can investigate how the ecological structure of communities that are impacted by ecosystem engineers changes through climate change intervals to start to disentangle the role of biotic interactions in promoting resilience.

Approaches

We use a variety of approaches to tackle these problems: spatial statistics, meta-analyses, Earth systems modelling, and more!