Abstract
Burrowing animals influence surface microtopography and hillslope sediment redistribution, but changes often remain undetected due to a lack of autonomous high resolution field monitoring techniques. In this study we present a new approach to quantify microtopographic variations and surface changes caused by burrowing animals and rainfall-driven erosional processes applied to remote field plots in arid and mediterranean Chile. We compared the mass balance of redistributed sediment within plot areas affected and not affected by burrowing animals, quantified the cumulative sediment redistribution caused by animals and rainfall, and upscaled the results to the hillslope scale. The new instrument showed a very good detection accuracy. The cumulative sediment redistribution within areas affected by burrowing animals was higher (−10.44 cm3 cm−2 year−1) in the mediterranean than the arid climate zone ( −1.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1). Daily sediment redistribution during rainfall within areas affected by burrowing animals were up to 350 % / 40 % higher in the mediterranean / arid zone compared to the unaffected areas, and much higher than previously reported in studies not based on continuous microtopographic monitoring. Furthermore, 38 % of the sediment eroding from the burrows accumulated within the burrow entrance while 62 % was incorporated into overall hillslope sediment flux. The cumulative sediment excavation by the animals was 14.62 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the mediterranean and 16.41 cm3 cm−2 year−1 in the arid climate zone. Our findings can be implemented into long-term soil erosion models that rely on soil processes but do not yet include animal-induced surface processes on microtopographical scales in their algorithms.
Highlights
Animal burrowing activity affects surface microtopography (Reichman and Seabloom, 2002; Kinlaw and Grasmueck, 2012), surface roughness (Yair, 1995; Jones et al, 2010; Hancock and Lowry, 2021) and soil physical properties (Ridd, 1996; Yair, 1995; Hall et al, 1999; Reichman and Seabloom, 2002; Hancock andLowry, 2021; Coombes, 2016; Larsen et al, 2021)
That the ratio between the sediment redistribution caused by rainfall in the areas affected and not affected by burrowing animals varies between the climate zones
Lower than cumulative sediment redistribution only within the mound and the burrow roof (Fig. 9 and A4). These results suggest that 28% of the eroded sediment from animal mounds and burrow roofs is re-accumulated within the burrow entrance during rainfall-runoff events, and the remaining 62% is incorporated into overall hillslope sediment flux
Summary
Animal burrowing activity affects surface microtopography (Reichman and Seabloom, 2002; Kinlaw and Grasmueck, 2012), surface roughness (Yair, 1995; Jones et al, 2010; Hancock and Lowry, 2021) and soil physical properties (Ridd, 1996; Yair, 1995; Hall et al, 1999; Reichman and Seabloom, 2002; Hancock andLowry, 2021; Coombes, 2016; Larsen et al, 2021). The complex interaction of sediment excavation and accumulation and erosion processes at the burrow and hillslope scales are not yet included in the modelling, as for this, a suitable method capable of measuring all occurred redistribution processes is needed. The reason for this knowledge gap is that previous studies have not provided data on low magnitude but frequently occurring sediment redistribution due to the specific limitations of their approaches. T., Shao, M.’a., Jia, Y., Jia, X., and Huang, L.: Small-scale observation on the effects of the burrowing activities of mole crickets on soil erosion and hydrologic processes, Agriculture, Ecosystems &. M., and Gan, M.: Small‐scale observation on the effects of burrowing activities of ants on soil hydraulic processes, Eur J Soil Sci, 70, 236–244, doi:10.1111/ejss.12748, 2019c
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