Bioturbation intensity and ichnofabric
Organisms have different abundances in different environmental settings. Living or moving through the sediment alters or destroys the original lamination or bedding in a sedimentary layer and forms distinctive textures or fabrics of sediment, termed ichnofabric. Several methods for describing the relative amount of bioturbation and ichnofabric of a bed or stratigraphic horizon are the bioturbation index (Reineck, 1963, 1967), ichnofabric index (Droser and Bottjer, 1986), or bioturbation intensity (Taylor and Goldring, 1993). Each uses a comparative visual scale to estimate the relative amount of bioturbation in a bed or horizon. Composite fabrics in a bed can also be examined relative to tiering or superposition of traces in a bed (Bromley and Ekdale, 1986).
Behaviors recorded by traces (ethology)
Where traces occur in rock beds (stratinomy, toponomy)
Other types of traces (borings, excrement, rooting)
Bioturbation intensity and ichnofabric
Some Kentucky trace fossils