Burial and turbulent transport by bioturbation: a 27‐year experiment in southeast Australia

In order to assess the net effect and relative importance of geomorphic processes at two natural woodland sites in southeast Australia, 100 small tiles were placed on the soil surface in 1979 and their movement was monitored over the course of nearly three decades. Rates of tile burial and other tile displacement were considerable but also markedly random, being largely inconsistent with expected patterns of displacement by orthodox creep and rainwash processes. This included substantial upslope displacement and burial depths that ranged from zero to 5 cm. We suggest that such turbulent transport in the topsoil has mostly been caused by the direct and indirect transfer of soil and clasts by animals and plants (i.e. bioturbation). In addition to direct evidence of biota interacting with tiles, the effectiveness of bioturbation at our sites has been well established and the overall tile burial rate of 0·25 to 0·4 mm yr^?1 is comparable to rates of surface mounding. Patterns of tile movement are generally consistent with soils‐geomorphic theory regarding the biomantle and bioturbation‐driven stonelayer formation, and provide further evidence that soil transfer and slope movement, in many situations, are markedly random and complex processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.