Patterns and trends in the fields of bioturbation, faunalturbation, and zoogeomorphology

This paper examines published works in the related fields of zoogeomorphology, bio(pedo)turbation, and faunal(pedo)turbation. Using Google Scholar, we extracted widely cited works for each of these three terms and their derivations (e.g. bioturbation, biopedoturbation, biopedturbation). For each term, we graphed the number of publications per year, most published authors, and research topics. Our graph of publications per year revealed that while publications on bio(pedo)turbation and faunal(pedo)turbation have decreased, publications on zoogeomorphology have steadily increased since its introduction in 1992. Author analysis found that the majority of authors are actively publishing in only one of the three fields; only 25 of the 627 authors in our sample published in multiple fields. Additionally, we found that works for each individual topic illustrated somewhat different research emphases than those of the other two. Published works in zoogeomorphology focus on riparian environments, mountain environments, burrowing, zoogeomorphology theory, and vegetation changes. Works in faunal(pedo)turbation focus on archeological impacts and faunally influenced pedogenesis. Studies of bio(pedo)turbation have strongly focused on burrowing in benthic environments, with secondary foci in paleoenvironmental implications, bioturbation theory, and pedogenesis.