< Back

Ecological work

Causation & process

The actions through which organisms exercise ecological agency and thereby cause or contribute to ecological processes, interactions, and ecosystem functioning. The term synthesizes work on organismal agency, species interactions, ecosystem engineering, and mobile-link organisms to emphasize organisms as causal participants in ecosystem functioning.

Jones, C. G., Lawton, J. H., & Shachak, M. (1994). Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos, 69(3), 373–386. Lundberg, J., & Moberg, F. (2003). Mobile link organisms and ecosystem functioning: Implications for ecosystem resilience and management. Ecosystems, 6(1), 87–98. Walsh, D. M. (2015). Organisms, Agency, and Evolution. Cambridge University Press.