ArticleOecologia2026
Legacy and live effects of ecosystem engineer differ across energy gradient, reversing net engineering outcome.
Article in Oecologia, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Ecosystem engineers influence abiotic and biotic properties of communities. However, environmental factors like stress or energy gradients could modify their influence. Furthermore, engineering effects include legacies that persist after the engineer's death that may interact with gradients differently than the live engineer. Here, we show that live and legacy effects of the oyster Crassostrea virginica, a reef-building ecosystem engineer, act in opposing directions across a physical energy gradient, reversing oysters' net engineering effect. When energy is low, live oysters primarily buffer erosional forces and increase habitat availability for cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). When energy is high, legacy effects of oysters on cordgrass are negative, because high energy piles dead oyster shells onto cordgrass and smothers it. Thus, with increasing energy, net effects of engineering on cordgrass shift from positive live effects to negative legacy effects. Estuary wide, oysters have a net positive effect on cordgrass, because high energy coastlines - where negative effects predominate - are rare. Live and legacy engineering can have disparate, context-dependent effects; combined, they determine the overall effects of engineers on communities.
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Registered trials
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