Mounds maximize ecosystem productivity: Odontotermes termites
 

The below-ground mounds of Odontotermes termites strongly influence savanna productivity via ordered spatial distribution and modification of soil composition.

       
  "The finding that regular spatial patterns can emerge in nature from  local interactions between organisms has prompted a search for the  ecological importance of these patterns. Theoretical models have  predicted that patterning may have positive emergent effects on  fundamental ecosystem functions, such as productivity. We provide  empirical support for this prediction. In dryland ecosystems, termite  mounds are often hotspots of plant growth (primary productivity). Using  detailed observations and manipulative experiments in an African  savanna, we show that these mounds are also local hotspots of animal  abundance (secondary and tertiary productivity): insect abundance and  biomass decreased with distance from the nearest termite mound, as did  the abundance, biomass, and reproductive output of insect-eating  predators. Null-model analyses indicated that at the landscape scale,  the evenly spaced distribution of termite mounds produced dramatically  greater abundance, biomass, and reproductive output of consumers across  trophic levels than would be obtained in landscapes with randomly  distributed mounds. These emergent properties of spatial pattern arose  because the average distance from an arbitrarily chosen point to the  nearest feature in a landscape is minimized in landscapes where the  features are hyper-dispersed (i.e., uniformly spaced). This suggests  that the linkage between patterning and ecosystem functioning will be  common to systems spanning the range of human management intensities.  The centrality of spatial pattern to system-wide biomass accumulation  underscores the need to conserve pattern-generating organisms and  mechanisms, and to incorporate landscape patterning in efforts to  restore degraded habitats and maximize the delivery of ecosystem  services." (Pringle et al. 2010:e1000377)

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Bacteria help volatilize and mineralize ammonia: termites
 

The gut bacteria of soil-feeding termites help make soil nitrogen available to plants and protect from ammonia toxicity via ammonia volatilization and mineralization.

     
  "Volatilization of ammonia [about 10 nmol (g fresh wt.)_1 h_1], either directly by emission from the termite body or indirectly from their feces, led to NH3 concentrations in the nest atmosphere of C. [Cubitermes] ugandensis that were three orders of magnitude above the ambient background – a relative accumulation that is considerably higher than that observed with CH4 and CO2. Together with previous results, these observations document that through their feeding activity and due to the physicochemical and biochemical properties of their digestive system, soil-feeding termites effectively catalyze the transformation of refractory soil organic nitrogen to a plant-available form that is protected from leaching by adsorption to the nest soil. Nitrogen mineralization rates of soil-feeding termites may surpass those effected by tropical earthworms and should contribute significantly to nitrogen fluxes in tropical ecosystems." (Ji and Brune 2006:267)
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Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Termitidae

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
                                                             

Specimen Records:	763
Specimens with Sequences:	527
Specimens with Barcodes:	500
Public Records:	62
Species:	165
Species With Barcodes:	137

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