Quantifying the rate and depth dependence of bioturbation based on optically‐stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates and meteoric 10Be |
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| Authors: | Michelle O Johnson Simon M Mudd Brad Pillans Nigel A Spooner L Keith Fifield Mike J Kirkby Manuel Gloor |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;2. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;3. Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia;4. Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing, School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia;5. Research School of Physics & Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Both the rate and the vertical distribution of soil disturbance modify soil properties such as porosity, particle size, chemical composition and age structure; all of which play an important role in a soil's biogeochemical functioning. Whereas rates of mixing have been previously quantified, the nature of bioturbation's depth dependence remains poorly constrained. Here we constrain, for the first time, the relationship between mixing rate and depth in a bioturbated soil in northeast Queensland, Australia using a novel method combining OSL (optically‐stimulated luminescence) ages and meteoric beryllium‐10 (10Be) inventories. We find that the best fit mixing rate decreases non‐linearly with increasing soil depth in this soil and the characteristic length scale of 0.28 m over which the mixing coefficient decays is comparable to reported rooting depth coefficients. In addition we show that estimates of surface mixing rates from OSL data are highly dependent on erosion rate and that erosion rate must be constrained if accurate mixing rates are to be quantified. We calculate surface diffusion‐like mixing coefficients of 1.8 × 10?4 and 2.1 × 10?4 m2 yr?1 for the studied soil for two different estimates of soil erosion. © 2014 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | bioturbation soil mixing erosion optically‐stimulated luminescence |
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