Bioturbation is the physical reworking and mixing of soils or sediments by living organisms, such as infaunal invertebrates, plant roots, and burrowing vertebrates, which alters sediment structure, porosity, and geochemical gradients. As a sedimentary phenomenon, it modifies depositional fabrics, enhances particle and solute transport, and influences diagenetic pathways by redistributing organic matter and electron acceptors. Bioturbation affects redox zonation, nutrient cycling, and preservation potential of sedimentary structures, body fossils, and chemical signatures, thereby playing a critical role in benthic ecosystem functioning, trace fossil formation, and interpretation of paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic records.
Walk across a mudflat at low tide and you might notice small, neat mounds of sediment scattered across the surface.
Environment
Apr 15, 2026
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Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually ...
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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Wild animals are not just inhabitants of the natural world. Many also act as natural landscape engineers, reshaping Earth's surface as they burrow, feed, and build shelters that move soil and sediment across ecosystems. From ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 30, 2026
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A research team from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) has made progress in studying the Shibantan biota in Yichang, Hubei Province, uncovering the oldest known ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 29, 2025
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The Japanese mud shrimp, Upogebia major, constructs burrows that can reach two meters deep into the sandy shores of East Asia and Eastern Russia. The size and Y-shape of these double-entrance burrows make them appealing to ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 27, 2025
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The murky world at the bottom of the oceans is now a little clearer, thanks to a new study that tracks the evolution of marine sediment layers across hundreds of millions of years.
Earth Sciences
Aug 11, 2025
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