Termites as Bioindicators of Habitat Quality in the Caatinga, Brazil: Is There Agreement Between Structural Habitat Variables and the Sampled Assemblages?

Abstract

The composition of termite assemblages was analyzed in three caatinga sites of the Estação Ecológica do Seridó, located in the municipality of Serra Negra do Norte, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. These sites have been subjected to selective logging, and cleared for pasture and farming. A standardized sampling protocol for termite assemblages (30h/person/site) was conducted between

High termite richness in an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil

“…In terms of other Brazilian morphoclimatic domains, the number of species encountered here was within the amplitude reported for areas of Cerrado vegetation (30 to 70 species) (Constantino 2005) and for the Amazon region (11 to 88 species) (Bandeira & Macambira 1988, Bandeira 1989, Constantino 1992, De Souza & Brown 1994, but higher than the amplitude reported for Caatinga areas (10 to 26 species) (Mélo & Bandeira 2004, Alves et al 2011.…”

Termite assemblages in dry tropical forests of Northeastern Brazil: Are termites bioindicators of environmental disturbances?

“…The assemblages of termites include a great relative abundance of H. sulcatus, which appears to be one of the most important species to the wood cycle in dry areas and it is very resistant to disturbance (Alves et al, 2011). Melo and Bandeira (2007) measured the influence of this species in wood consumption in the Caatinga, and found that it was a generalist species that could consume wood in different stages of decomposition, even when already attacked by other species of termites.…”

“…The species A. amifer has been recorded in the Caatinga (Alves et al, 2011;Vasconcellos et al, 2010), Atlantic Forest, and Cerrado (Mélo & Bandeira, 2004), and may be considered of wide distribution.…”

“…All genera and species identified were classified into five feeding groups, according to the classification suggested by Swift and Bignell (2001), and to information in the literature (Gontijo & Domingos, 1991;DeSouza & Brown, 1994;Mélo & Bandeira, 2004;Reis & Cancello, 2007;Vasconcellos et al, 2010;Alves et al, 2011), namely: (WF) wood-feeders (termites feeding on wood and wood litter, including dead branches still attached to trees); (SF) soil-feeders (termites feeding deliberately on mineral soil, with higher proportions of soil organic matter and silica, and lower proportions of recognizable plant tissue than in other groups); (SWF) soil/ wood interface-feeders (termites feeding in highly decayed wood which has become friable and soul-like, or predominantly within soil under logs or soil plastered on the surface or inside of rotting logs or mixed with leaf litter in stilt-root complexes); (LF) litter-foragers (termites foraging on leaves and small woody items, often taken back and stored temporarily in the nest); and (SPF) specialized-feeders (species of termites that feed on fungi, algae, lichens on the bark of trees, manure and vertebrate carcasses).…”

“…Some abiotic variables were also evaluated, in order to check, for example, if there was some sort of association between these variables and the established environmental structures. Also, it was investigated if termites could reflect, on their community composition, the variation of the habitat, as observed in other environments, like in humid (Eggleton et al, 2002;Jones et al, 2003) and dry tropical forest (Vasconcellos et al, 2010;Alves et al, 2011).…”