Ecosystem engineer

Summary

An ecosystem engineer is any species that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat. These organisms can have a large impact on species richness and landscape-level heterogeneity of an area. As a result, ecosystem engineers are important for maintaining the health and stability of the environment they are living in. Since all organisms impact the environment they live in one way or another, it has been proposed that the term "ecosystem engineers" be used only for keystone species whose behavior very strongly affects other organisms. Types Jones et al. identified two different types of ecosystem engineers: Allogenic engineers Allogenic engineers modify the biophysical environment by mechanically changing living or nonliving materials from one form to another. Beavers are the original model for ecosystem engineers; in the process of clearcutting and damming, beavers alter their ecosystem extensively. The addition of a dam will change both th

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_engineer

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Effects of drought on the effectiveness of Phalaris arundinacea and Impatiens glandulifera in building up soil aggregates – a microcosm approach

Thomas George McMullin

Near natural floodplain ecosystems are not only stressed by frequent inundations over a year but also by periodical droughts in summer due to their reduced water retention capacity. To maintain floodplain habitats as biodiversity hotspots, a stable soil structure is required. Soil ecosystem engineers (EEs) such as plants and earthworms, who are known to build up soil macro-aggregates, have to tolerate rough conditions while they colonize these habitats. EEs¿ effectiveness on soil aggregation under periodical drought conditions has never been investigated so far. To simulate different drought intensities, a microcosm approach under controlled conditions will be set up. Soil sediments, plants and earthworms will be collected in a restored floodplain river section and incubated 8 weeks at 15°C under different soil moisture conditions. Plant resistance to drought will be assessed through leaf water potential and transpiration monitoring as well as through innovative measurements of plant resistance to embolism. This approach will help to increase the understanding of how EEs behave under periodical stress conditions.

2017

Topsoil structure stability in a restored floodplain: Impacts of fluctuating water levels, soil parameters and ecosystem engineers

Claire Guenat, Renée-Claire Le Bayon, Andreas Cedric Schomburg

2018

Ecosystem engineers: Biofilms and the ontogeny of glacier floodplain ecosystems

Tom Ian Battin, Jade Brandani, Matteo Roncoroni

The term “ecosystem engineering” emerged in the 1990s and is commonly used to refer to the activities of larger organisms like beavers and trees in rivers and streams. The focus on larger organisms may be motivated by their more visible effects on the environment. However, while it may be intuitive to suggest that the bigger the organism the bigger its potential engineering effects, there may be microscale organisms who through their number rather than their size can act simultaneously to result in significant impacts. This paper considers biofilms as a candidate ecosystem engineer. It is well known that biofilms play an important role in enriching the sediment matrix of nutrients and in stabilizing sediments. Biofilms may be critical in increasing the habitability of the benthic substratum. In this paper, we consider their potential role in the ontogeny of ecosystems in recently deglaciated terrain. We show how by changing ediment stoichiometry, decreasing sediment erodibility, and reducing surface sediment permeability they may promote primary succession on lateral, incised terraces, which are less perturbed compared with the main active floodplain.

2019