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Abstract Ecosystem engineers are organisms that modify their physical habitats in a way that alters resource availability and the structure of the communities they live in. The evolution of ecosystem engineers over the course of Earth history has thus been suggested to have been a driver of macroevolutionary and macroecological changes that are observed in the fossil record. However, the rise to dominance of ecosystem engineers has not been thoroughly reconstructed. Here, we investigate the history of bioturbation and reef‐building (two of the most important marine ecosystem engineering behaviours today) over the Phanerozoic. Using fossil occurrences from the Paleobiology Database, we reconstruct how common communities influenced by ecosystem engineers were in the oceans, how dominant ecosystem engineers were within their own communities, and the taxonomic and ecological composition of bioturbators and reef‐builders. We find that bioturbation has become an increasingly common ecosystem engineering behaviour over the Phanerozoic, while reef‐building ecosystem engineers have not become more dominant since their Devonian apex. We also identify unique bioturbation and reef‐building regimes that are characterized by different ecosystem engineering taxonomic groups, ecological modes, and dominance, suggesting that the nature of ecosystem engineering has at times rapidly shifted over the course of the Phanerozoic. These reconstructions will serve as important data for understanding how ecosystem engineers have driven changes in biodiversity and ecosystem structure over the course of Earth history.
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This content will become publicly available on November 1, 2026
‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. However, no con-ceptual framework exists for studying the rise of ecosystem engineering in deep time, requiring us to consider effects that fall outside the scope of traditional defini-tions. Here, we present a new framework applicable to both modern and ancient engineering-type effects. We propose a new term – ‘Earth system engineering’ – to describe biological processes that alter the structure and function of planetary spheres, and which combines core tenets of ecosystem engineering, niche construction, and legacy effects. We illustrate this framework using the fossil record, and show how it can be applied across the tree of life, and throughout Earth history.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2051255
- PAR ID:
- 10650665
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Cell Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Volume:
- 40
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0169-5347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1066 to 1076
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Evolution, extinction, ecosystem engineering, fossil record
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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