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

ABSTRACT: 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

SUBMITTER: Calderon-Cortes N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5960270 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature