Earliest terrestrial eco-engineering

Early land plants and microbes began transformation of the land on Earth around 400-500 million years ago, and continue to shape our planet to this day. Their impact manifests itself in multiple ways, including "constructive effects" (e.g., soil/sediment stabilization, erosion protection, trapping and consolidation; physical energy attenuation) and "deconstructive effects" (e.g., erosion, drilling, mining). Early plants and microbes began to turn the land from a place controlled by physical forces into one where biology also played a major role, a key factor that distinguishes Earth from its neighbour Mars.

Some of the more detailed functions that plants and microbes play in terms of eco engineering include: Binding of plant roots stabilizes soil and sand (dunes), while roots binding around rocks and to other trees, can help prevent the forest from blowing down in hurricanes. Leaf litter, recumbent lower and higher plants (e.g., mosses, liverworts, cushion plants), and surface microbial crusts all protect the soil surface from wind- and rain-driven erosion. Roots of plants growing on river edges stabilize river channels preventing bank erosion and meandering (braided rivers). Submerged fresh water aquatic plants reduce water flow rates in rivers that otherwise cause bank erosion, and trap sediment that builds sand bars and islands (trees falling into streams and rivers do the same). Coastal salt marshes attenuate wave energy in storm surges, protecting coastlines, while trapping sediment that can build up the height of the marsh in the face of seal-level rise. In the coastal ocean, kelp forests and seagrass beds attenuate wave energy and also trap sediment. The roots of plants can crack rocks helping make soil, while higher plants and lichens acid etch rock also helping make soil. The hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi "drill" tiny channels in rocks, mining the phosphorus within that is then used by higher plants. The roots of higher plants drill down through the soil to create "macropores" that allow water and air to reach soil depths.

Plant transpiration and CO2 uptake also has had (and continues to have) a major influence on Earth's climate too.