Download Out of the woods: how termites live inside and outside

2017_57: Out of the woods: how termites live inside
and outside rain forests
Supervisors: Dr Paul Eggleton ([email protected]), Dr Richard Gill (Life
Sciences) and Dr Kate Parr (University of Liverpool)
Department: Natural History Museum / Life Sciences
It is generally accepted that most termites evolved in tropical rain forest (e.g. Aanen &
Eggleton, 2005, Current Biology). However, that is not necessarily where they are
most ecologically influential. Tropical termite genera have colonised a range of
habitats from woodland, to savanna and grasslands, becoming vital decomposers and
ecosystem engineers. However, this colonisation is not without costs; in adjusting from
an environment that is highly buffered and wet to a highly temporally-variable, drier,
climate. This project will explore how termites have adapted to these new
environments, using a natural precipitation gradient across Ghana, West Africa.
This student will examine the climatic factors that challenge termites outside wet
forests, and their adaptations to it, using new data from individual termites and
colonies. There will be an emphasis on genera (e.g. Macrotermes, Odontotermes) that
are found abundantly in a range of habitats.
Five sites across a N-S precipitation gradient in Ghana will be chosen: wet forest (2000
mm of rain a year) , deciduous forest (1500 mm rainfall), forest-savanna transition
(1200 mm rainfall), wet (Guinea) savanna (900 mm rainfall), and dry (Sudan) savanna
(700 mm rainfall)These habitats will be surveyed for termites using standard methods
(Davies et al , 2013, Biotropica) and then selected species will be measured for
individual temperature and desiccation tolerance. Mounds and nests will also be
investigated to see if they provide any additional buffering services. Nests and mounds
may be predominantly for predator defence and to protect against waterlogging, not
for environmental homeostasis.
Aims and Objectives:
• To examine the explanatory power of an eco-physiological approach to species
distributions.
• From the species distribution (transect) data a climatic model of forest species
distributions will be elaborated, based on individual species and genera.
For more information on how to apply visit us at www.imperial.ac.uk/changingplanet
Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet
• This model will be compared against a pure eco-physiological model with data taken
from the physiological responses of individual termite species and genera. This will tell
us how far eco-physiological responses alone can explain the distribution of termites.
• The model will also be used to predict how species may shift in their distribution
under human-disturbance and climate change predictions.
• There is additional scope for the data to be examined in a phylogenetic context, as
abundant phylogenetic data exists for African termites: this will test the hypothesis that
non-forest termites mostly evolved from forest lineages.
The student will spend more of their time at the Natural History Museum, in the Soil
Biodiversity Group (SBG). There will be a substantial period in Ghana conducting
fieldwork, based at the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) in Kumasi. The
rest of the time will be spent in Liverpool and at Imperial College.
This project will contribute to the Royal Society/ DfiD-funded Soil Fauna in Africa
(SoFIA) programme, which is undertaking ecological research on termites and ants in
Africa. It will use the same sites as athe SoFIA student, and will benefit indirectly from
infrastructure funding provided by SoFIA. The student will participate in SoFIA
activities wherever possible, s to form a critical intellectual mass for the programme.
on South Georgia for molecular and chemical analysis. Microbial community
assemblage (bacteria, archaea, fungi and microbial eukaryotes) will be analyzed using
a combination of environmental DNA and high throughput sequencing, bioinformatics,
statistical and microbial community structure analysis techniques. The chemistry of
the soils will be determined using isotope and trace elements analysis. This will enable
us to determine what nutrients are available and how much, which are limited and
where the dominant sources are. Field-based transplant manipulation experiments will
be performed in combination with DNA sequencing, soil chemistry and carbon
measurements to evaluate how rhizosphere microbiomes and growth of native plants
may be affected by invasive species.
For more information on how to apply visit us at www.imperial.ac.uk/changingplanet