PERSPECTIVES OF A YOUNG SCIENTIST ON THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DON JOHNSON AND THE FUTURE OF BIOTURBATION RESEARCH

The research contributions of Don Johnson have had a profound impact on my understanding and appreciation of the role of soil-dwelling organisms in soil development. In this presentation, I provide my perspectives on Don’s research and how his innovation has helped shaped the research of young geoscientists, and, in particular, my own research on the movement of soil by harvester ants. I will share data from several experiments, which were aided in design through helpful and enthusiastic encouragement from Don. These experiments convincingly demonstrate the deliberate advective and diffusive movement of sediment by ants. I will also provide new quantitative estimates on the volume of sediment moved by a healthy colony of harvester ants. These findings are shedding new light on the unappreciated role that ants and other soil-dwelling organism play in soil development, a topic Don argued for many years. To conclude, I will discuss my vision of future research avenues in the realm of soil-dwelling organisms and bioturbation.