Interactions between soil biota and the effects on geomorphological features

Abstract The interaction of animals with abiotic features of their environment has long been known to cause alterations to geomorphic features, and these interactions may cause feedback loops that further alter geomorphic features and animal communities. This paper samples the literature on selected burrowing animals in western North America, and discusses the interactions of animals with abiotic features of the environment and with each other, and the resulting impacts on geomorphic features and each other. As expected, burrowing characteristics of animals influence geomorphological processes. For example, pocket gophers and certain ground squirrels that burrow horizontal tunnels on sloping grounds seem to have significant impacts on horizontal movement of soils, whereas prairie dogs and harvester ants have more impact on vertical movement of soils. Burrowing animals, in general, increase the patchiness of the environment, which creates localized patch habitat for other plants and animals, thereby increasing biodiversity at the landscape scale. Burrowing animals influence and are influenced by microbes: sylvatic plague wiped out large populations of prairie dogs, earthworms cause major changes in soil microflora, pocket gophers and harvester ants cause changes in mycorrhizal communities, which in turn impact plant communities.