The role of pocket gophers as subterranean ecosystem engineers

Pocket gophers (Geomyidae) and their ecological cognates worldwide have profound impacts on ecosystems, from consuming vegetation to altering the soil physically. The rodents excavate vast burrow systems and deposit tailings in abandoned tunnels and on the ground surface. Energetic costs of excavations are extremely high, placing a premium on optimizing the location of burrows. The resulting disturbance patterns alter physical and biotic processes fundamentally. Recent studies reveal that the extensive excavations and their associated impacts generate a dynamic mosaic of nutrients and soil conditions that promotes diversity and maintains disturbance-dependent components of plant communities. Furthermore, these disturbances significantly accelerate erosion and downslope soil movement on shallow slopes and inhibit them on steep slopes.