Bioturbation
- Oceanography -
Geological Oceanography Dictionary
Definition
A marine sediment concept defining how particles accumulate, are reworked, and change after burial on the seafloor. It governs depositional processes, physical properties, and post-depositional reactions measured through cores and laboratory analyses. It does not uniquely identify sources or processes without supporting stratigraphic, mineralogical, and geochemical evidence.
Bioturbation
Natural & Formal Sciences Dictionary
Definition
The mixing and reworking of sediments and soils by the activity of organisms — including burrowing, feeding, construction of galleries, and root growth — that alters particle distribution, porosity, stratigraphy, and biogeochemical gradients.
Bioturbation
Humanities & Arts Dictionary
Definition
The physical and chemical alteration of archaeological deposits and their stratigraphic relationships by biological agents (plants, animals, fungi, microbes) that displace, mix, destroy, or introduce materials after initial deposition, producing vertical and lateral reworking of contexts without human action.