The environmental impact of crayfish biopedoturbation on a floodplain : Roanoke River, North Carolina Coastal Plain, U.S.A

A terrestrial crustacean, the crayfish, creates widespread fine-scale landforms (mounds or "chimneys") on the floodplain of the Roanoke River in eastern North Carolina, U.S.A. These mounds are typically 12 cm high and 8 cm in diameter, and are composed of extremely high concentrations of clay. Non-crayfish-affected soils on the floodplain, regardless of coarser-scale landform type, are dominated by sand, illustrating that crayfish are a primary mechanism for concentrating clay and creating spatial heterogeneity on the floodplain.