The process and concept of ecosystem engineering has also been called niche construction.

An example of natural selection through ecosystem engineering occurs in the nests of social insects, including ants, bees, wasps, and termites.

Another ecosystem engineering keystone species is the beaver, which transforms its territory from a stream to a pond or swamp.

Ecological engineering supports symbiotic relations between different species to serve the needs of humans as well as promoting the health of the ecosystem.

The concept of ecosystem engineering brings new conceptual implications for the discipline of conservation biology.

In addition to acting as a protected natural area for teaching and research in the sciences, it is also available as an engineering testing ground for various sensor-related and ecosystem monitoring technologies.

In modern ecological theory, bioturbation is recognised as an archetypal example of ' ecosystem engineering ', modifying geochemical gradients, redistributing food resources, viruses, bacteria, resting stages and eggs.

Although forests are classified primarily by trees, the concept of a forest ecosystem includes additional species ( such as smaller plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals ) as well as physical and chemical processes such as energy flow and nutrient cycling.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every other element in their local environment.

The human ecosystem concept is grounded in the deconstruction of the human / nature dichotomy and the premise that all species are ecologically integrated with each other, as well as with the abiotic constituents of their biotope.

These characterizations stem from the ecosystem concept, which assumes that the phenomena under investigation ( interactions and feedback loops ) are sufficient to explain patterns within boundaries, such as the edge of a forest, an island, a shoreline, or some other pronounced physical characteristic.

The modern concept of ecosystem services can be found in the late 19th century.

The concept of self-organization is central to the description of biological systems, from the subcellular to the ecosystem level.

The European concept of urban ecology examines the biota of urban areas while to the North American concept which has traditionally examined the social sciences of the urban landscape. as well as the ecosystem fluxes and processes.

However, the concept is also applicable to water, soil, and any other aspect of an ecosystem which can be both harvested and renewed-the so-called renewable resources.

File: Earthdhip concept. jpg | An Earthship interacts with the elements as part of the ecosystem.

The concept of the game is to simulate an ecosystem ; players may modify the genetics of the plants and animals that inhabit the virtual world.

Starting in the early 1990s James F. Moore originated the strategic planning concept of a business ecosystem, now widely adopted in the high tech community.

* Carl Walters – American born biologist known for his work involving fisheries stock assessments, the adaptive management concept, and ecosystem modeling

This book outlines the important principles of ecological studies of animal behaviour and life history, such as food chains, the size of food items, the ecological niche and the concept of a pyramid of numbers as a method of representing the structure of an ecosystem in terms of feeding relationships.

At this level of generality, the concept of GNH is transcultural — a nation need not be Buddhist to value sustainable development, cultural integrity, ecosystem conservation, and good governance.

Tansley's concept of the ecosystem was adopted by the energetic and influential biology educator Eugene Odum.

The ecosystem concept has evolved rapidly during the last 100 years with important ideas developed by Frederic Clements, a botanist who argued for specific definitions of ecosystems and that physiological processes were responsible for their development and persistence.

Modern expansions of the ecosystem services concept include socio-economic and conservation objectives, which are discussed below.

The concept of ecological redundancy is sometimes referred to as functional compensation and assumes that more than one species performs a given role within an ecosystem.

His recent work explores the concept of ' ecomimicry ' as designing the human built environment as constructed ecosystems that mimic the processes, structure and attributes of ecosystems, such as ecosystem biological structure, ecosystem materials recycling, increasing efficient energy use, etc.

This has enabled the detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem of a long-vanished tropical forest.

A biome is a large part of the earth that has very similar abiotic and biotic factors, climate, and geography, creating a typical ecosystem over that area that is characterized by its dominant plants.

An ecosystem has many biotopes and a biome is a major habitat type.

General limitations about the structure and philosophy of CITES include: by design and intent it focuses on trade at the species level and does not address habitat loss, ecosystem approaches to conservation, or poverty ; it seeks to prevent unsustainable use rather than promote sustainable use ( which generally conflicts with the Convention on Biological Diversity ), although this has been changing ( see Nile Crocodile, African elephant, South African white rhino case studies in Hutton and Dickinson 2000 ).

The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome, has three sub-ecoregions with ecosystem — plant community subdivisions:

The ocean ecosystem has likely changed since the prewhaling era, making a return to prewhaling numbers infeasible ; many marine ecologists argue that existing gray whale numbers in the eastern Pacific Ocean are approximately at the population's carrying capacity.

As mentioned by writer Mike Carey, Iceman is " an Omega level mutant ... has powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world.

The island has a " fragile and unique ecosystem " with plants rarely found in Canada, such as wild hyacinth, yellow horse gentian ( Triosteum angustifolium ), and prickly pear cactus, as well as two endangered snakes, the blue racer and the Lake Erie water snake.

As Australia has been geographically isolated from other major continents for millions of years, there is an endemically unique ecosystem free of pests and diseases.

Because the plants and animals of the sea floor are the basis of the food chain, damage to the shoreline has consequences for the whole shallow-water ecosystem, including the multi-million-dollar Saudi fisheries industry.

It has been hypothesized by Serge Payette that the Spruce-Moss forest ecosystem was changed into the lichen woodland biome due to the initiation of two compounded strong disturbances: large fire and the appearance and attack of the spruce budworm.

Other ecosystems are experiencing similar pressures, such as the Tarangire ecosystem in Tanzania, which historically supported large numbers of migratory wildebeest ( as well as other species ), but has recently declined in number, coincident with illegal hunting and land-use changes across the rainy season ranges.

SPARC International was intended to open the SPARC architecture to make a larger ecosystem for the design, which has been licensed to several manufacturers, including Texas Instruments, Atmel, Cypress Semiconductor, and Fujitsu.

In the US state of Louisiana, a non-native rodent known as a nutria have become so destructive to the local ecosystem that the state has initiated a bounty program to help control the population.

The economic value of 17 ecosystem services for the entire biosphere ( calculated in 1997 ) has an estimated average value of US $ 33 trillion per year.

This desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp that thrive in its waters, and provides critical nesting habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp.

Dr. Gretchen Daily, of Stanford University has written a book, The New Economy of Nature that addresses the issue of financing ecosystem services.

Environmentalists say the practice has almost destroyed the river's ecosystem.

However, controversy about manipulating the ecosystem and the efficiency of iron fertilization has slowed such experiments.

The federal nature-protect law ( Bundesnaturschutzgesetz, since 1976 ) requires that wild animals and plants and their community should be protected as part of the ecosystem in the specific diversity which has grown naturally and historically, and their biotope and other living conditions should be protected, preserved, developed, and restored.

The region's climate results in a shrub-steppe ecosystem which has 18 endemic plant species.

The ecosystem has Mediterranean hydrological characteristics, including high variation in intra-and inter-annual discharge, large floods and severe droughts.