An in situ experiment was conducted over a short period of time to quantify bioturbation with a pulse input of particulate and conservative tracers, the luminophores. Application of a biodiffusive and bioadvective model gives estimations of the mean biodiffusive mixing rate (D = 4.3 +/- 2.8 cm2.y(-1)) and the mean vertical transport rate (V = 27.5 +/- 15.1 cm.y(-1)). The heterogeneity of the results from every core is attributed to the different composition of the benthic community in each of them, and provides evidence of the horizontal variability of the bioturbation measurements on the same site. Only experiments of brief duration permit assessment of the bioadvective and non-local mixing events that superimpose biodiffusion effects in most of the cores. The inclusion of the bioadvective term in the model decreases the biodiffusive mixing rate previously estimated from a simple biodiffusive model.