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Properties and functional impact of termite sheetings

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Abstract

Termites are considered soil engineers and key bioturbators in tropical and subtropical soils. A large number of studies have described the specific properties of the aboveground mounds that termites construct to protect their colonies from environmental hazards. However, there is a paucity of information on properties of soil sheetings; more temporary but often extensive structures are covering over or inserted within substrates on the ground such as leaves and woody materials or components of arboreal runways. Such sheetings are conspicuously produced not only by the Macrotermitinae but also by many other unrelated taxa. Here, we review the available literature and discuss (i) the relationship between rainfall and soil sheeting production and (ii) how termites affect the clay and C contents in soil sheetings. This reveals that sheeting production is highly variable and site specific. We also found that soil sheetings are always enriched in clay, but their impacts on soil C content are variable and related to the C content of the parent soil and to the quality of the substrates consumed by termites.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the “BIOTURB” project from the Network of Drainage Basins (Réseau des Bassins Versants, RBV) and the Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences (LMI IFCWS/CEFIRSE) from the French Institute of Research for Development (IRD). The authors are grateful to Dr. N.G. Kumar, Department of Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, for literature support and encouragement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indo-French Cell for Water Science, Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Ajay Harit, Ekta Chaudhary, Sougueh Cheik & Pascal Jouquet

  2. Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Rashmi Shanbhag

  3. Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Ekta Chaudhary

  4. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (UMR 242 iEES Paris), Institute of Research for Development, Bondy, France

    Sougueh Cheik & Pascal Jouquet

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  1. Ajay Harit
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Correspondence to Ajay Harit.

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Harit, A., Shanbhag, R., Chaudhary, E. et al. Properties and functional impact of termite sheetings. Biol Fertil Soils 53, 743–749 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1228-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1228-7

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