Ecosystem Engineer
An organism that physically modifies its environment, creating or maintaining habitats for other species. Engineers affect ecosystems through physical changes rather than trophic interactions.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 3 chapters:
"... roots and fungi trade nutrients between trees, infrastructure companies create conditions that enable entire industries to exist. AWS is a business ecosystem engineer. Like earthworms aerating soil, AWS provides compute infrastructure (EC2), data storage (S3), and networking - invisible infrastructure that thousand..."
"H., & Shachak, M. (1994). Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos, 69(3), 373-386. - Wright, J. P., Jones, C. G., & Flecker, A. S. (2002). An ecosystem engineer, the beaver, increases species richness at the landscape scale. Oecologia, 132(1), 96-101. - Korb, J., & Linsenmair, K. E. (2000)."
"... Mechanism 2: Keystone Engineers - Creating Habitat Structure Some species create physical structures that many other species depend on. These ecosystem engineers or keystone engineers have disproportionate impact because their physical modifications create habitat, resources, or environmental conditions tha..."
Biological Context
Beavers build dams creating ponds and wetlands. Elephants knock down trees, creating grassland patches. Coral build reef structures housing thousands of species. Earthworms modify soil structure. Ecosystem engineers have effects that persist beyond their presence and affect many other species.
Business Application
Platform companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google are ecosystem engineers, building infrastructure that determines what other businesses can exist.