Pedoturbation

The natural processes that mix soil are commonly referred to as pedoturbation. Major processes include digging by animals, uprooting of trees, swelling of clay, and downslope movement under gravity. The effects can be immediately manifested or imperceptibly slow. They may promote or retard the differentiation of the soil profile into horizons, and modify soil porosity. Less obvious processes of pedoturbation include the movement of air and water, freezing and thawing, growth of salt crystals, and meteoric impacts. Human activities are also a form of pedoturbation, disturbing the soil, as in agriculture, mining, and construction. The well‐mixed, uppermost part of most soils may be thought of as a biomantle, the lower boundary of which is sometimes marked by a stone line bearing archaeological secrets. The structure and porosity of the biomantle, critical to soil quality, is maintained to a large extent by faunal activity and partly substituted in agriculture by conventional tillage. According to this paradigm, soil management ought to become more cognizant than it has been of the refreshing, rejuvenating, and pedogenic effects of natural pedoturbation.

Archaeology · Biology · Digging · Geochemistry · Geography · Natural (archaeology) · Pedogenesis · Soil structure · Soil water · Tillage · Aeolian processes and effects · Ecology · Environmental Science · Geology · Paleontology · Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics · Soil erosion and sediment transport · Soil Science

• The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms

  Open Access•Charles Darwin•1881

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• Darwin would be proud

  Open Access•Donald L Johnson•Geoarchaeology•2002

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• Reflections on the Nature of Soil and Its Biomantle

  Donald L Johnson, Jane E J Domier et al.•Annals of the Association of…•2005

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