Erwin Douglas H
Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2008 Jun;23(6):304-10. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2008.01.013. Epub 2008 May 3.
Organisms influence their environments through activities that range from bioturbation to modification of redox gradients and construction of structures. Some of these activities modify the selective regime of the builder (niche construction) and some influence the ecological success of other species (ecosystem engineering) as well as their evolutionary prospects. In this article, I argue that these processes produce effects that persist over geological time, modulating macroevolutionary patterns and diversity. Examples include greater sediment bioturbation and increased thickness and persistence of shell beds. The impact of these processes has been increasing over time, with recent communities encompassing greater ecosystem engineering than those of the early Phanaerozoic. Thus, positive feedback through environmentally mediated selection seems to have increasingly enhanced biodiversity through the Phanaerozoic.
生物体通过从生物扰动到氧化还原梯度改变和结构构建等一系列活动来影响其环境。其中一些活动改变了建造者的选择机制（生态位构建），一些则影响了其他物种的生态成功及其进化前景（生态系统工程）。在本文中，我认为这些过程产生的影响会在地质时间尺度上持续存在，调节宏观进化模式和多样性。例子包括更大程度的沉积物生物扰动以及贝壳层厚度和持久性的增加。随着时间的推移，这些过程的影响一直在增强，与早寒武纪的群落相比，近代群落包含更多的生态系统工程。因此，通过环境介导的选择产生的正反馈似乎在整个显生宙越来越多地促进了生物多样性。
