Tuesday, March 3, 2015

In the News: Termnite Mounds




Termites: Guardians of the Soil. (The New York Times, 3/2/2015)
Researchers at Princeton University and their colleagues recently reported in the journal Science that termite mounds may serve as oases in the desert, allowing the plants that surround them to persist on a fraction of the annual rainfall otherwise required and to bounce back after a withering drought. The mounds could thus prove potential bulwarks against climate change, preventing fragile dryland from slipping into lifeless wasteland. 

Related article:
Collective Mind in the Mound:  How Do Termites Build Their Huge Structures?  (7/31/2014)

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