“Ecosystem engineers” concept advocated by C.G. Jones generalizes the ecological phenomena that organisms can affect environments through non-assimilatory/dissimilatory processes. The conceptual framework defines ecosystem engineers as organisms that directly or indirectly control the availability of resources to other organisms by causing state changes in biotic or abiotic materials, and consists of 3 terms: ecosystem engineers; ecosystem engineering and ecosystem engineering effects. Ecosystem engineers can be divided into autogenic and allogenic ones. The concept provides insight into the nature of ecological science. This paper reviews the recent developments surrounding this concept and discusses its applications to various fields of ecology, e.g., disturbance ecology, invasion ecology, conservation biology and restoration ecology. We also discuss the future research directions surrounding ecosystem engineers.