Ecosystem Engineers

Niche Construction, Habitat Modification & Eco-Evolutionary Feedback

100
Engineers
50
Dependents
0.5
Habitat quality
0
Time

Parameters

Scenario

Niche construction (Odling-Smee, Laland & Feldman 2003) describes how organisms modify their environment, feeding back on their own and others' selective pressures — a form of extended inheritance.

dE/dt = r_E · E · (1 − E/K) · H (engineer)
dD/dt = r_D · D · (1 − D/K_D(H)) (dependent)
dH/dt = κ·E − δ·H (habitat)

Engineers (beavers, elephants, earthworms) modify habitat H; dependents benefit from improved habitat K_D(H). This creates an eco-evolutionary feedback loop: engineers improve their own carrying capacity, dependent species track engineer abundance, and habitat quality has its own dynamics. Disturbances reveal resilience and alternative stable states.