Unoccupied mounds of soil-feeding termites host diverse soil fauna both in primary and logged tropical forests

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F25%3A00637243" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/25:00637243 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42832-025-0329-8.pdf" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42832-025-0329-8.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42832-025-0329-8" target="_blank" >10.1007/s42832-025-0329-8</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Unoccupied mounds of soil-feeding termites host diverse soil fauna both in primary and logged tropical forests

Original language description

We quantified soil fauna communities in unoccupied Dicuspiditermes spp. mounds. Mounds supported up to nine times more soil fauna individuals than control soil. Ants were the most abundant group with active colonies within the unoccupied mounds. Many termite species create conspicuous, aboveground soil nest mounds. Once the resident termite colony disappears, the mound structure gradually disintegrates. The now empty mound, which is rich in nutrients, and stable in microclimate, potentially provides an important microhabitat for a different range of species. However, the communities in unoccupied termite mounds remain poorly explored, and the relative importance of these mounds in anthropogenically modified habitats is completely unknown. Here we quantify the invertebrate communities in unoccupied mounds of the soil-feeding termites Dicuspiditermes spp. in primary and logged lowland tropical rain forest in Malaysian Borneo and compare them to communities found in control soil. We also quantify the introgression of plant roots into the mounds. We found the unoccupied mounds support a range of invertebrate groups, with ants (Formicidae) having the highest abundances of any group across both habitats. Mounds supported significantly higher abundances of invertebrates overall in both primary forest (nine times more) and logged forest (five times more). However, the number of invertebrate taxa did not differ between mounds and control soils. Plant root mass was higher in control soils than in unoccupied mounds, possibly due to dominance of fine roots in the latter microhabitat. Using previous estimates of mound densities, we estimate that unoccupied Dicuspiditermes spp. mounds support >340 000 invertebrate individuals in primary forest and >17 000 individuals in logged forest per hectare. Our results indicate that unoccupied mounds are an important, although ephemeral, microhabitat for a range of invertebrate groups, in both pristine and anthropogenically disturbed habitats.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA24-12229S" target="_blank" >GA24-12229S: Do social insect impacts on soil properties maintain tropical plant diversity in the face of anthropogenic habitat change?</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Soil Ecology Letters

ISSN

2662-2289

e-ISSN

2662-2297

Volume of the periodical

7

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

250329

UT code for WoS article

001518175900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105009218709