Competitive Overdispersal Patterns in a Multispecies System of Mound-Building Termites

Abstract

Natural patterns have become increasingly more observable in recent years due to the increase in global satellite images. With these increasing discoveries a debate has formed over the exact mechanisms that cause patterns to form. Recently, models have been proposed that incorporate different patterning mechanisms to explain pattern formation as the result of interactions between mechanisms at different spatial scales.^1,2 One recent model used interactions between termite mounds and vegetation to explain the presence of vegetation gaps and patches in a savannah landscape. Competitive interactions between termite mounds form overdispersal patterns on a large-scale. Overdisperal patterns result from competition between termite mounds and have previously been shown to promote vegetation biodiversity and ecosystem resistance to desertification.^3,4 Thus, understanding the details of this overdispersal may provide key insights to interpreting the effects of environmental change in dryland ecosystems. Many studies have shown the formation of competitive overdisperal patterns in systems with a single termite species, but there have been no studies attempting to show the resulting spatial distribution of mounds in a landscape with multiple mound-building species.^5–8 This study uses manual survey techniques to conduct a pattern analysis of multiple plots in Kenya, which contain two genera of mound-building termites (Macrotermes and Odontotermes).