Role of pill bugs in an ecosystem.

Hello there! I wanna find out if pill bugs still play a key part in our local ecosystems, especially in our backyards. They everywhere. How can pill bugs help the backyard ecosystem? And have they play a key role in decomposing wood to enrich the soil. We seen those everywhere. I used to catch bugs when I was a kid. Please reach me if you all need anything. Adios!

O K Blake another good question.  I encourage you to make it a project of permaculture observation.   I have been doing so for 80 years, Yes I started my permaculture education when I was 3.
Pill bugs often get blamed for damage they are trying to clean up.  If an apple falls to the ground and a deer takes a bite out of it mold spore will start to grow on it and cause it to start rotting. But if pill bugs come along and keep it clean it will finish ripening.  If rain gets into your barn and mold starts to grow on the wood pill bugs will show up and try to clean it up.  In the garden mulch they seem to be doing the same thing and if they are on a damaged tomato they are probably doing the same thin as on that apple.  Please continue as a bug observer and add to our ecological knowledge.

The neatest thing about them to me is how they remove heavy metal contamination from the soil.

People forget that pill bugs are related to lobsters and shellfish a land version of them, not really bugs. It's enjoying to see them rolled up. These fellas are here to stay to clean up the soil!

Ya'll have such nice things to say about them. To me, they are an absolute menace. Eating my strawberries. Chewing down coneflower seedlings at the base like little lumberjacks. Eating absolutely every bit of young red lobelia plants. Eating squash seedlings as fast as they can germinate.
They seem to be the one con of growing wood chip beds typical of permaculture gardens. I have to use diatomaceous earth on the plants above to have any chance of growing them. I often yell "Go back to the ocean!" at them.