{"id":24195,"date":"2023-01-18T17:52:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T16:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=46687"},"modified":"2023-01-18T21:35:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T20:35:44","slug":"ecosystem-engineers-what-they-are-and-7-of-the-best-ecosystem-engineers","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/ecosystem-engineers-what-they-are-and-7-of-the-best-ecosystem-engineers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecosystem engineers: what they are and 7 of the best ecosystem engineers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Megan Shersby\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 18 January 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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What is an ecosystem engineer?<\/h2>\n

All organisms have an impact on their environment or other species in one way of another, but some modify their surroundings more than others.<\/p>\n

Ecosystem engineers, as they are known, can be found all over the world. Think of ants or termites constructing mounds, or the combined efforts of key coral reef<\/a> organisms.<\/p>\n

We humans do it to the extent that there is a proposed geological epoch to describe our impact on the planet \u2013 the Anthropocene.<\/p>\n