RCN: Ecological and Evolutionary Effects of Extinction and Ecosystem Engineers (E6)

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Ecosystem engineers are organisms that change the environment in which they live, and can create or eliminate habitats for other taxa. Ecosystem engineers therefore can be important drivers of local and regional diversity. Our own species – humans – offer a powerful example. Humans have adopted behaviors that have created, modified, and/or destroyed habitats used by a wide variety of animals and plants. The effects of these activities are leading to dramatic changes in the structure and function of ecosystems, and the current global biodiversity crisis that has been termed the ‘6th mass extinction’. Thus, some consequences of human activities are comparable to the environmental perturbations associated with mass extinctions, whereas others may be creating new ecological opportunities. A key question is therefore: what effect will human ecosystem engineering behaviors have as we continue to modify the global environment? This Research Coordination Network will bring together ecologists and paleontologists to synthesize information on the effects of ecosystem engineers in different kinds of biological systems at different times to develop predictive models for how human activity is expected to affect ecosystems. The researchers will also conduct outreach activities designed to increase diversity in STEM fields using partnerships with local community colleges, an undergraduate course taught concurrently at member institutions, and a conference workshop.The key to predicting the effects our activities may lie in the past. Although humans are among the most recently emerged ecosystem engineers with powerful effects, they are not the first. The evolution of biological groups such as oxygenic photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, marine animals capable of burrowing beneath the sediment surface, a wide variety of reef-building organisms and land plants are all thought to have had dramatic effects on global biodiversity. This Research Coordination Network will synthesize existing data across nearly 600 million years of evolutionary history to address the questions: 1) to what extent are the effects of new ecosystem engineers on communities predictable? And, 2) to what extent do we expect humans to continue to drive the 6th mass extinction, and/or create new ecological and evolutionary opportunities? The E6 RCN will unite scientists from the fields of paleobiology, geology, ecology, statistics, conservation, and phylogenetics to contrast the ecological and evolutionary consequences of ecosystem engineers. Activities will include twice yearly workshops and training of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. In partnership with the University of California Museum of Paleontology, researchers will develop and run a paleobotany and paleoclimatology lab for Bay Area community college students. An interdisciplinary course on Extinction and Ecosystem engineers will be taught concurrently at participant institutions, and a workshop on approaches for studying ecosystem engineers and community ecology at large spatial and temporal scales will be developed for national and international conferences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.