Hardly used habitats: Dearth and distribution of burrowing in Paleozoic and Mesozoic stream and lake deposits

摘要

Limited use of substrate ecospace by a meager infauna in streams and lakes is indicated by analysis of more than 10 000 observations of bioturbation in Permian through Jurassic freshwater deposits. In contrast, marine substrates have been inhabited and bioturbated since the Cambrian; colonization of freshwater substrates differed fundamentally from that of marine substrates. Bioturbation-enhanced flux of dissolved materials across the sediment-water interface was not operating until after the Paleozoic in freshwater ecosystems.