The Impact of Anthropogenic Disturbance on Assembly Patterns of Termite Communities

Abstract

Intensification of land‐use threatens biodiversity, especially in tropical ecosystems that harbor the planet's highest species richness. This negative impact of anthropogenic disturbance on species numbers is well established, but the mechanisms underlying the community assembly processes are less well understood. Termites are of fundamental importance in tropical ecosystems where they are critical for nutrient recycling and species diversity. We tested the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on termite species diversity and assembly processes in a West African savanna applying the newest techniques of phylogenetic community analyses. Species richness dropped in areas of intensive land‐use and compositional similarity between intensive land‐use areas was high. This contrasted with a protected National Park where communities were characterized by high species richness and intermediate species turnover between sites. Slightly disturbed areas in the buffer zone surrounding the park were intermediate, they still had high species richness but similarity between sites increased. Strikingly, the assembly pattern also changed with disturbance from more phylogenetic overdispersion to more clustering (coexisting species became phylogenetically more similar), but only when the fungus‐growing termite Macrotermes bellicosus was absent. Our data suggest that the major forces structuring termite communities depend: (1) on the presence of this dominant mound‐building termite; and (2) that they change to more environmental filtering with disturbance. Anthropogenic disturbance seems to function as a filter that allows only a specific subset of species to occur. Such an effect might be widespread in ecology but it is difficult to document quantitatively. Phylogenetic community analyses can help to contribute such evidence.

The role of high termitaria in the composition and structure of the termite assemblage in Miombo woodlands of southern Burundi

“…Number of significant associations (at P < 0.05, except one (1*) at P < 0.01) between the occurrences of termite species tested pair by pair for positive or negative association, for each sampling grid (Pearson's correlation calculated after 4999 toroidal randomisations). Korb, 2016). Such values remain much below those obtained from Afrotropical rain forests, which appear to be the cradle of Termitidae diversity from which other biomes and other continents have been colonised (Davies et al, 2003;Aanen & Eggleton, 2005).…”

“…Numbers above bars stand for total numbers of occurrences. Korb, 2016). Number of significant associations (at P < 0.05, except one (1*) at P < 0.01) between the occurrences of termite species tested pair by pair for positive or negative association, for each sampling grid (Pearson's correlation calculated after 4999 toroidal randomisations).…”

“…Termite assemblages are highly dependent on environmental quality (Bandeira & Vasconcellos, 2002;Eggleton et al, 2002a), soil-feeding species being especially sensitive to disturbance (Wood et al, 1982;Eggleton et al, 1995Eggleton et al, , 2002a. The African rainforest areas support rich termite faunas, with 80-90 species per locality (Eggleton et al, 1995(Eggleton et al, , 2002b, savannas are much poorer (20-30 species : Ferrar, 1982;Dosso et al, 2010Dosso et al, , 2013Davies et al, 2012;Hausberger & Korb, 2016). Very little is known of the local termite assemblages of miombo woodlands, except for a single study reporting 27 species from Nyika Plateau, Malawi (Donovan et al, 2002).…”

Termite Mounds Effects on Soil Properties in the Atlantic Forest Biome

“…Although tropical termites are able to live in either wood or soil, most of them are found in the soil, mainly in dry areas (Echezona and Igwe, 2012), and are fundamental for tropical ecosystems (Hausberger and Korb, 2016). These invertebrates promote bioturbation, a largely physical process that mainly involves changes in soil texture but can also affect other soil properties (Obi and Ogunkunle, 2009).…”

Termite communities along a disturbance gradient in a West African savanna

“…However, recent analyses suggest that random processes play an important role in community assembly in an undisturbed West African savanna, with a structuring effect by one large mound building species, Macrotermes bellicosus (Hausberger and Korb 2015). Additionally, first evidence implies that assembly processes change to more environmental filtering with disturbance (Hausberger and Korb 2016). This suggests that disturbance can not only lead to a decline in species richness, but also to a change of the processes that structure species communities.…”