Spatial pattern enhances ecosystem functioning in an African savanna

Termite mounds across an African savanna were mapped and their spatial arrangement analysed, and plant productivity, plant reproduction and animal abundance were measured with distance from mounds and across the landscape as a whole.

Studied in

Odontotermes, Plantae, Animalia

Sample size

mapped termite mounds across savanna with associated surveys

Mounds were regularly rather than randomly spaced, and productivity, plant reproduction and animal abundance were elevated near them. Because the regular spacing distributed those elevated patches evenly, landscape-scale productivity exceeded what the same number of randomly placed mounds would produce.

• Observational; mound placement was not manipulated, and the regular spacing has its own causes.
• One savanna system and one termite genus; the landscape effect depends on the surrounding vegetation.

• Ecosystem engineers

  Termite mounds enrich the soil around them, which is expected. What is not is that their even spacing raises productivity across the whole savanna — the same mounds, clustered, would do less.