Creation of mounds by plains pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius) may affect the distribution of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) and subsequent patterns of herbivory. An association between abundance of meadow voles and density of neighborhood mounds might be expected if voles use mounds as feeding sites (positive association), or if vole avoid mounds due to lack of cover (negative associat...

Spring mounds on Earth and on Mars could represent optimal niches of life development. If life ever occurred on Mars, ancient spring deposits would be excellent localities to search for morphological or chemical remnants of an ancient biosphere. In this work, we investigate models of formation and activity of well-exposed spring mounds in the Mechertate-Chrita-Sidi El Hani (MCSH) system, easter...

—Pocket gophers have the potential to alter the dynamics of grasslands by creating mounds that bury existing vegetation and locally reset succession. Gopher mounds may provide safe sites for less competitive species, potentially increasing both species diversity and vegetation heterogeneity (spatial variation in species composition). We compared species composition, diversity and heterogeneity ...

A study was undertaken to characterize surface temperatures of mounds of imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and S. richteri Forel, and their hybrid, as it relates to sun position and shape of the mounds, to better understand factors that affect absorption of solar radiation by the nest mound and to test feasibility of using thermal infrared imagery to remotely...

This paper reports on ant and termite species inhabiting the mounds (murundus) found in three wetland sites in Santo Antonio da Patrulha. Ants and termites were found in 100% of the mounds of two sites and in 20% of those in the third site. Colonies of Camponotus fastigatus were found inhabiting all the mounds, while colonies of Brachymyrmex sp., Linepithema sp., Pheidole sp., and/or Solenopsis...

Termites are important components of biologically mediated feedback to land-use change in the tropics. In Central Amazonia, termite mounds are prevalent in post-clearing landscapes and appear to constrain re-colonization of the landscape by vegetation. To determine the most important constraints imposed by termite mounds on plant establishment, we investigated chemical, physical, and hydraulic ...

Megapodes are exceptional among birds because they use external heat sources for incubating their eggs. In Australian brush-turkeys (Alectura lathami), this source is the heat produced by microbial decomposition in mounds of leaf litter. A recent laboratory study showed that artificial incubation of eggs at different temperatures affects the sex ratio of brush-turkey hatchlings. Here, this phen...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to investigate the indigenous utilization of termite mounds and termites in a rain-fed rice growing village in the central plain of Laos, where rice production is low and varies year-to-year, and to assess the possibility of sustainable termite mound utilization in the future. This research was carried out from 2007 to 2009. METHODS The termites were...

How termite mounds function to facilitate climate control is still only partially understood. Recent experimental evidence in the mounds of a single species, the south Asian termite Odontotermes obesus, suggests that the daily oscillations of radiant heating associated with diurnal insolation patterns drive convective flow within them. How general this mechanism is remains unknown. To probe thi...

In 2002 high-resolution sidescan sonar images of a mound area at the SW Rockall Trough Margin were recorded with the TOBI deep towed sidescan sonar. Processed TOBI images with a pixel resolution of 6 metres provide a unique overview of the carbonate mound distribution and related sedimentary features around the mounds. Three morphologically distinct areas can be recognised on the TOBI mosaic. I...