In May 2019, Lidya Tarhan and Noah Planavsky from Yale University continued their bioturbation experiments at Darby Island Research Station. Bioturbation studies investigate how animals burrow in seafloor sediments and the manner in which they impact the physical properties and ecological structure of the seafloor, as well as how particular burrowing strategies mediate cycling of chemical species through sedimentary pore waters and ocean bottom waters. The goal of the May studies was to use ultraviolet-fluorescent particles called luminophores to track the extent to which meiofauna (animals of <1 mm diameter) transport sediment grains.
