Coastal zones worldwide are home to a large diversity of ecosystem engineers that perform
key functions such as the recycling of organic matter and nutrients. The habitats resulting
from the biological activity of these species are exposed to numerous disturbances such as
over harvesting and trampling or via coastal modification. In this context, it is becoming key
to understand the functioning of these engineered habitats and how they are affected by
increasing disturbances. During my PhD, I used the reef habitat built by the gregarious …

Ecosystem engineers are organisms capable of modifying their local environment through
their physical presence (ie autogenic engineers) and/or their biological activity (ie allogenic
engineers),“directly or indirectly modulating the availability of resources to other
species”(Jones et al., 1994). Ultimately, these species maintain, modify, create or even
destroy habitats (Bouma et al., 2009; Jones et al., 1994). The abiotic modifications caused
by ecosystem engineers can lead to facilitation for some organisms (Hacker and Gaines …