Ecosystem Engineers

Ecosystem engineers, or more precisely physical ecosystem engineers, are organisms that change the abiotic environment by physically altering structure. As a consequence they often, but not invariably, have effects on other biota and their interactions, and on ecosystem processes. The physical ecosystem engineering concept interconnects a number of important ecological and evolutionary concepts and is particularly relevant to environmental management.

Keywords: extended organismal physics; structural modification by organisms; abiotic environmental change; effects on species and ecosystems