EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Termite Bait

Wood Termites (unidentified species), Order Blattodea
Mobenzino, Democratic Republic of Congo

Explanation:  We've likely all seen these creatures of the woods.  Or, more specifically, of wood.  

Termites.

  
But these are special.  They occur in down, rotting logs in the jungle forests of the Congo, specifically here by the village of Mobenzino, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the Congo River Basin of central tropical Africa.
   

A termite nest high a tropical tree in the Congo.

Saving the tree saves the nest, which saves the termite colony, which saves their key ecological function in the forest, which ... ultimately saves their help in fishing.
  
  
Termites consume wood cellulose and help to break down the wood fiber to release nutrients into the soil and ecosystem.

Further, here, at times, termites are gathered and used by villagers for fish bait.  Fish are important sources of protein for the village residents, and any bait that can help ensure a catch is an important resource.

So here lies a vital lesson for all of us.

Sometimes it is critical to conserve, retain, a part of the ecosystem that seems wasteful or undesirable ... such as rotting down logs.  But these logs are key habitat for this termite bait.  

The logs decay into rotting fiber ... the termites recycle the nutrients to be used again by other plants ... to help feed the soil with slow, time-released nutrients ... and the termites help the fishers feed their families and communities.  

This is indeed a lesson for us all.  

In this way, termites are not our enemy.  

          
Information:
     Acanakwo, E. F., D. Sheil, and S. R. Moe. 2019. Wood decomposition is more rapid on than off termite mounds in an African savanna. Ecosphere 10(1):e02554.
     Fox-Dobbs, K., D. F. Doak, A. K. Brody, and T. M. Palmer. 2010. Termites create spatial structure and govern ecosystem function by affecting N2 fixation in an East African savanna. Ecology 91(5):1296-1307.