This video, we're going to talk about how certain species have significant impacts on their communities. A foundation species is a species that has really strong community-wide effects. For example, providing habitat and or food to other species in the community due to its really large biomass in the community. An example of a foundation species is kelp in a kelp forest because it has relatively large biomass in that community and really strong community-wide effects as it provides habitat and food for other species in the community. Now, on the other hand, a keystone species is a species that has relatively low biomass, but it plays a key or important ecological role that's disproportionate to its relatively low abundance.
A classic example of a keystone species are bees. This is because bees have relatively low biomass and low abundance in their communities. However, bees play a very key and important ecological role in their communities as they serve as pollinators for many different plants. Lastly, we have ecosystem engineers, which are organisms that influence a community by significantly altering its physical environment. A classic example of an ecosystem engineer is beavers, because they physically alter their environment when they create these dams that can create new habitats for other species in the community when the dams slow down the flow of river water and create wetlands and lakes, for example.
So this here concludes this video, and I'll see you all in our next one.