An unmanned, AI-controlled, terraforming ship arrives at an earth-like planet (i.e in the goldilocks zone of its star, with a magnetosphere, an atmosphere, plenty of liquid water, earth-like gravity, etc.).
Despite this habitability, the planet has not developed any life at all.
The terraforming ship sets to work and succeeds in making the planet adequate for Earth-native species (altering the atmosphere composition for example).
Now it is ready to introduce earth species to the planet in order to prepare it for a colony ship that will arrive in a few hundred years time [edit: some answers suggest more time may be necessary to establish a functioning ecological pyramid, so specify more time if necessary].
What ecological pyramid will the ship introduce to create a viable, human-compatible ecosystem and food web?
I assume that:
- The terraforming ship will introduce the species in the temperate or Mediterranean-like zone of the planet, where humans can live comfortably.
- There's not enough time for species to evolve before the humans arrive, but the terraforming ship could potentially genetically-engineer some existing earth-species, if necessary.
I assume that the ecological pyramid will:
- Include bacteria, plants, herbivores, carnivores and predators.
- Create an ecosystem that can survive without human intervention, there being hundreds of years before the humans will arrive.
- Support human-consumable food of the sort earth-based farms produce e.g. wheat, rice, potatoes, vegetables, nuts, dairy foods, fruit, meat.
- Will be capable of supporting human useful animals like dogs, cats, sheep and horses, although the terraforming ship may wait to introduce them until the humans arrive if that's necessary.
- May include birds, fish, spiders, insects and other species, but only if they are needed as part of the pyramid. It will not include any 'unnecessary' species. For example, there's no need for kangaroos or penguins.
I'm happy to amend or clarify the question if it's unclear or I've made invalid assumptions.