Termite Mounds Lead to 'Islands of Fertility' (11 of 12) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Termite Mounds Lead to 'Islands of Fertility' (11 of 12)

Caption

Zebras (Equus quagga) graze the short, nutrient-rich grasses growing atop a termite mound in Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve. Termite mounds in African savannas frequently have elevated levels of soil nutrients and water availability, which promote the growth of nutritious plants, which in turn attracts large herbivorous mammals. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Feb. 6, 2015 issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by J.A. Bonachela at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ, and colleagues was titled, "Termite mounds can increase the robustness of dryland ecosystems to climatic change."

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[Credit: Rob Pringle]

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