Changes the future availability or distribution of energy and matter by altering the environment.
Operational definition
Ecological role.
An organism that materially changes the physical or chemical environment in a way that alters resource availability, habitat, or energetic opportunities for other organisms.
Examples include:
- dam builders;
- reef builders;
- burrowing animals;
- trees modifying light and soil;
- biofilm-forming microbes.
Item 55 classifies the focal organism’s energetic expenditure on environmental modification; item 107 classifies its resulting ecological role. Primary producers form the basal input of new organic matter, while consumers, scavengers, detritivores, decomposers, and engineers describe distinct modes of transfer or alteration within food webs. (OpenStax)