Post by Marta Loreggian

New publication out! 🎉 🪱🌍 Soil models are missing something: the animals digging through it. Earthworms, gophers, termites, ants — these ecosystem engineers constantly reshape soil structure and water flow. Yet most hydro-physical and landscape evolution models still largely ignore them. In our new publication, "The inclusion of burrowing animals in soil hydro-physical equations and models: A review" Annegret Larsen , Jantiene Baartman , Jakob Wallinga and I analized this gap. Here's what we did: 🔍 We collected and assessed existing quantitative equations and models that include burrowing animals in soil hydro-physical process quantification — mapping the evidence across spatial and temporal scales, from lab measurements to landscape-scale studies spanning decades (Figure 1). ⚠️ We found that key dynamic processes — like burrow collapse — are rarely represented, limiting how accurately current models can capture animal-driven soil change. 🧩 We propose an outline to harmonize future data collection and systematically parameterize animal-related activity in earth (sub)surface models (Figure 2), and a modeling framework for how a "Bioturbation Impact Term" (BIT) could be incorporated, either as a module or via model coupling (Figure 3). 💡 Our take: accounting for ecosystem engineers is essential for more accurate predictions of soil dynamics, landscape evolution, and biodiversity–soil interactions. 📄 Full paper: https://lnkd.in/eZbBywVr We would like to thank all the people of Soil Science Cluster WUR , Soil Physics and Land Management - Chair Group - Wageningen Environmental Research, and Soil Geography and Landscape - Wageningen University & Research who contributed to this publication. #SoilScience #Hydrology #Geomorphology #Bioturbation #Biogeomorphology #EcosystemEngineers #LandscapeEvolution #LandscapeRestoration Wageningen University & Research