Ecosystem Engineers - "If you build it, they will come."

Ecosystem Engineers

 In a sentence: Ecosystem engineers, through their interactions with the environment, significantly influence the rest of the species and geomorphic processes within their environments. ​

Longer form thoughts:

Let's consider ecosystem engineers and what they can teach us as humans about becoming better engineers.

Ecosystem engineers, receive (and deserve) a tremendous amount of focus due to their ability to change entire ecosystems; not just to suit their needs but to also provide for the lifecycle needs of many other species.  The science behind this is fascinating and far reaching.  


Much of the science we've learned the hard way - remove something and watch if it breaks.  As a species, we humans have broken a lot of things.  Remove bison from the grasslands, remove beaver from our waters, the disappearance of the temperature sensitive coral.

Conservationists and engineers, very rightly, are looking to partner with and mimic ecosystem engineers to reclaim, rewild, and reoccupy habitats. Perhaps the largest hurtle that any non-human engineer will encounter, however, is humans.  For the most part, I don't think we mean anything by it (humans that is), but we really should put some effort into being a bit more aware.

The flagship species of this concept (and an expertise of mine) is the beaver. With its unique building behaviors, the beaver drives topographic, hydrodynamic, and structural changes. These changes create habitats for other species and attract their predators, shaping a complex web of life.

It's not just beavers that are ecosystem engineers. Nature's engineering prowess is diverse, with autogenic engineers like coral creating habitats through their own lifecycle processes, and allogenic engineers like the American crocodile creating habitats by directly moving material and modifying their environment.

If the underwater world has any sense of mythology, I would like to believe that whales are seen a bit like deities.  When a whale dies, it's body creates a new ecosystem at the where it's body falls, called a Whale Fell.

Planktonic tunicates basically drop in food deliveries to the ocean below them.  The blue-tailed giant larvacean (Bathochordaeus mcnutti) creates a "mucus house" which acts as a net. This net captures prey and is filtered into the larvacean's mouth through geometric tubes. Once this net becomes clogged with too large prey to make it through the smaller openings, the larvacean disposes of the net to begin creating another. This net then floats to the bottom of the ocean, where many other benthic species will then consume the nutrient-rich net.

Aquatic ecosystem engineers are of two broad types; those that create and support aquatic habitats and those that create and support terrestrial habitats. The North American bison, through wallowing behavior, creates circular depressions in the earth that capture rainwater. In addition to supporting unique vegetation systems, these small shallow ponds become aquatic habitats for amphibians and insects in the otherwise dry grasslands. Conversely, the muskrat builds lodges and fishing platforms in the middle of ponds, creating a terrestrial reprieve that many species of insects and avians use to live within or roost upon.

This is where human engineers can genuinely expand their horizons. The field of biomimicry, which draws inspiration from nature's engineering marvels, offers many lessons waiting to be learned.

When we consider re-engineering our wetlands, mainly where these species are no longer occupying, we should look to beaver. In areas prone to flooding, we could add canals in how beavers build canals. In areas prone to drought, we should add semi-permeable dams. When we consider promoting biodiversity in our grasslands, we should look to bison - creating little ponds for our amphibian populations and helping recharge our groundwater. Suppose we want to support bird and insect migration. In that case, we should look to the structures provided by muskrats and beavers to allow their species a place to briefly land and rest.

When we consider how to get rid of our waste, perhaps we should be taking inspiration from the blue-tailed giant larvacean who embeds their food in mucus for other species to consume.  This topic starts to dance with ethics, but why can't our food waste go to teaching bears how to forage under logs instead of through our trashcans.  How wonderful would it be if our food waste could be utilized in sustainable farming or helping species reclaim their habitats?  We have levels of this throughout society through composting but it would be wonderful to see an institutional scale effort into ensuring our waste is redistributed in our ecological systems in a sustainable way.

References:
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"The giant larvacean Bathochordaeus" YouTube, uploaded by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) https://youtu.be/L1wFb_ShW7k?feature=shared.  Accessed 28 Sept. 2023
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