Occurrence of termites (Isoptera) on living and standing dead trees in a tropical dry forest in Mexico

PeerJ

article

Nancy Calderón-Cortés¹  Luis H. Escalera-Vázquez²  Ken Oyama¹ 

[1] Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México;CONACyT, Instituto de Investigaciones sobre los Recursos Naturales, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo

关键词: Ecosystem engineering;    Forest canopy;    Wood decomposition;    Standing dead trees;    Necromass;    Tree density;    Xylophagous insects;    Decay process;    Tropical dry forest;    Termite occurrence;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.4731

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Termites play a key role as ecosystem engineers in numerous ecological processes though their role in the dynamics of wood degradation in tropical dry forests, particularly at the level of the crown canopy, has been little studied. In this study, we analysed the occurrence of termites in the forest canopy by evaluating the density and proportion of living and standing dead trees associated with termites in deciduous and riparian habitats of the tropical dry forest in Chamela, Mexico. The results indicated that 60–98% of standing dead trees and 23–59% of living trees in Chamela were associated with termites. In particular, we found that the density of standing dead trees was higher in deciduous forests (0.057–0.066 trees/m2) than in riparian forests (0.022 and 0.027 trees/m2), even though the proportion of trees was not significantly different among habitats. Additionally, we found a higher density of trees associated with termites in trees of smaller size classes (0.01–0.09 trees/m2) than in larger class sizes (0–0.02 trees/m2). Interestingly, 72% of variation in the density of trees associated with termites is explained by the density of standing dead trees. Overall, these results indicate that standing dead tree availability might be the main factor regulating termite populations in Chamela forest and suggest that termites could play a key role in the decomposition of above-ground dead wood, mediating the incorporation of suspended and standing dead wood into the soil.

【 授权许可】

CC BY