Functional Diversity of Subsurface Deposit Feeders

The major goals of the project are to gain a comprehensive understanding of polychaete chemosensory behaviors below the sediment-water interface and to understand how burrowing displaces sediment grains.A method and apparatus for investigating subsurface properties of sediment, soil, snow, food stuff and other soft materials incorporates a probe head, preferably in the form of a coil spring that functions as a screw thread, which moves into the soil, snow, sediment, food stuff or other soft material, isolates a column of the material and applies tension to that column while measuring the applied force with a force sensor.