ABSTRACT
The previous chapters examined the autecology of selected species. However, the biogenic reworking of sediment is rarely accomplished by one species in solitude. More often, a community subdivides the endobenthic habitat into many ecological niches, each occupied by species specialized for a particular way of life. The quality of the bioturbation process thereby becomes enormously variable. It depends on which sediment-processing species are present; the relative rates at which these work; the relative abundance of these species; seasonal variation in rate; influence of one species on another, etc. Let us examine some of these aspects of the complicated process of bioturbation.
