Soil-Dwelling Termites in the Southwest Region of the Ivory Coast

Carroll, Paul H.

doi:10.2136/sh1969.3.0003

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Although some discussion remains about the exact depth, the generally accepted view is that the origin of the mound material is from the surrounding subsoil below 20 cm depth (Adamson, 1943;Hesse, 1955;Nye, 1955;Harris, 1961;Carroll, 1969;Lee and Wood, 1971). This view is confirmed by our results by the concentration of channels (trench I) between 30 and 100 cm below the surface and the similarity of the organic carbon values of the mound and their surrounding subsoils.…”

Section: Origin and Texture Of The Mound Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO MOUNDS OF MACROTERMES BELLICOSUS (SMEATHMAN) COMPARED WITH SURROUNDING SOILS IN SIERRA LEONE

Miedema

Vuure

1977

Journal of Soil Science

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Summary The mounds are situated in the Makeni Area, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Seventy five percent of this area consists of clayey upland soils that belong to the Makeni series (Typic Paleudult), which contain about 80 per cent of gravel‐sized hardened plinthite glaebules. The upland is dissected by numerous streams along which gravel‐free fine‐loamy terrace soils occur that belong to the Masuba series (‘Plin thic’Udoxic Dystropept) occupying about 15 per cent of the area. Mound 1 is a young inhabited mound on a Masuba soil, whilst mound II is an old abandoned mound on a Makeni soil. A trench was dug from the centre of the mounds into the surrounding soils. Profiles were described and samples were analyzed for organic carbon, CEC, exchangeable Ca, Mg, K, Na, and pH, and for particle size analysis with 5 sand fractions. The material used to build the mounds is derived from the subsoil (between 30 and 100 cm depth). Termite channels extended laterally for at least 10 m for mound I, but could not be traced so clearly for mound II. Mound I and the nest of mound II contain a higher percentage of particles less than 250 μm than the surrounding subsoil. Material over 2 mm is not carried by termites. Both mounds show a higher base saturation and higher values of exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, compared to the surrounding subsoil. Increased CEC and pH are noted in mound I and the nest part of mound II, the latter also showing increased values of exchangeable Na. Organic carbon values are equal to those of the surrounding subsoil. Accumulation of mineral elements from organic matter collected as food, including small contributions from the fungus combs and termite bodies, is primarily responsible for the observed differences. In view of the water analyses no contribution is expected from the fluctuating groundwater table.

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Section: Origin and Texture Of The Mound Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO MOUNDS OF MACROTERMES BELLICOSUS (SMEATHMAN) COMPARED WITH SURROUNDING SOILS IN SIERRA LEONE

Miedema

Vuure

1977

Journal of Soil Science

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“…We have been considering one way to define an individual soil body, namely, in relation to an individual plant, including its root system and the host soil. A colony of ants (Baxter and Hole, 1967) or a colony of termites (Carroll, 1969) can build a soil body full of channels and chambers, both belowground and in mounds. To hug an ant mound is to invite insect bites.…”

Section: Historical Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Earth Beneath Our Feet: Explorations in Community

Hole¹

1997

Soil Horizons

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“… 12. Such tropical stonelayers, often mistaken for fluvial‐deposited placers, were the focus of some indigenous “folk mining” that preceded commercial exploitation, which included some termite‐mounded areas (Mawe 1812; Skertchly 1843; Mills 1889; Carroll 1969; Anonymous 1970; West 1970; Aleva 1983). …”

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Reflections on the Nature of Soil and Its Biomantle

Johnson

Domier

Johnson

2005

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Apart from the engineering approach to soil as movable regolith, most specialists who study soil view it as a plantlinked, land-only, and Earth-only entity whose character and properties are explained by a mix of four environmental factors-climate, organisms, relief, and parent material-that operate over time. These factors function to produce soil, where S 5 f (cl, o, r, p, t . . .). This relationship constitutes the five-factors, ''clorpt,'' explanatory model of soil formation that lends itself to the survey, classification, and mapping of soil for agricultural and environmental purposes and aids in soil valuations and soil conservation-management needs. In geomorphology and Quaternary research, it has met success in soil chronosequence and age-dating studies. But inasmuch as soil is the most complex and unparsimonious of all natural science entities, is any model so conceptually endowed that it allows a deep understanding of the full range and nuances of soil-forming processes? Can a conventional model provide new visions and different levels of knowledge beyond conventional levels? We present a multifaceted and biodynamic approach that views soil in different ways. One is that soil is the outer integument, or ''skin'' of all lithic-composed celestial bodies, planets, their satellites, and such. But Earth differs from others because water covers nearly three-fourths of its surface and life covers nearly all of its surface and produces a biodynamically mediated ''epidermis''-a biomantle that other planets lack. The biomantle constitutes a subaerial-subaqueous continuum across the globe. Life imparts myriad biomechanical and biochemical processes-biodynamic processes-to the soil-biomantle continuum, and these coact with physical processes in producing soil landscapes. This multifaceted approach is embedded as a component of the dynamic denudation framework of landscape evolution, which carries useful and different explanatory and predictive powers for studying the global soil-biomantle that may be invisible, unacknowledged, or unstressed in other frameworks, including one where ''organisms'' essentially means plants. To appreciate how our approach differs from conventional views of soil formation, and to provide a historic context, we reflect on the nineteenth-and twentiethcentury turning points in Earth sciences, mainly in geography, geology, and soils, which led to the five-factors (clorpt) model as the sine qua non way to explain soils. The details of our approach then follow.

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Soil-Dwelling Termites in the Southwest Region of the Ivory Coast

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

THE MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO MOUNDS OF MACROTERMES BELLICOSUS (SMEATHMAN) COMPARED WITH SURROUNDING SOILS IN SIERRA LEONE

THE MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO MOUNDS OF MACROTERMES BELLICOSUS (SMEATHMAN) COMPARED WITH SURROUNDING SOILS IN SIERRA LEONE

The Earth Beneath Our Feet: Explorations in Community

Reflections on the Nature of Soil and Its Biomantle

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