Table 2 Some potential applications of termite mounds
From: Bacterial diversity from soil-feeding termite gut and their potential application
Items | Importance of soil feeding termites in different environments | Reference |
|---|---|---|
CH4 gas emission reduction | Termite mounds mitigate emissions of methane (CH4) by aerobic CH4 oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) significantly and are responsible for ∼ 1 to 3% of global CH4 emissions | Nauer et al. 2018 |
The evidence from mounds confirmed that methanotrophs mitigate between 20 and 80% of termite-derived CH4 before emission to the atmosphere | Chiri et al. 2020 | |
By putting economic weight on CH4 production in the breeding goal, selective breeding can reduce the CH4 intensity even by 24% by the EU | de Haas et al. 2021 | |
Biomedicine | The antibacterial activity of Litchi chinensis wood vinegar against S. aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, and P. aeruginosa due to its high phenolic compositions for biomedicals | Yang et al. 2016 |
Antibacterial against food spoilage microorganisms including Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 by Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion and microdilution | Witasari et al. 2022 | |
Microbes isolated from soil, water, sewage, and sediments are potential sources of antibacterial and antifungal agents against a whole range of bacterial pathogens resistant to drugs | Dimri et al. 2020 | |
Bioblocks | Thus, termite mounds are clay-rich sites and the composition of many chemical elements is greater than surrounding soils | Eze et al. 2020 |
An important habitat for an enormous diversity of microorganisms and is used for making bricks, geochemical prosperity, pottery, and plastering of houses | Pandey and Upadhyay 2021 | |
Used as a construction material for pozzolanic crucial activities by empirical and traditional without a clear scientific explanation behind its usage (calcined termites) | ||
Biocontrol and biofertilizer | DsRNA is considered a new generation of RNA biopesticides with great potential for biological control. For example, feeding Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) larvae sl 102 dsRNA enhanced the toxicity of Bt | Caccia et al. 2020 |
Termites are considered pests and biological control is an environmentally friendly alternative to reduce pesticide contamination The soil conditions created by termite mounds are also sufficiently fertile to enable the recruitment and development of new tree species that have higher water and nutrient requirements than the original savannah tree community | Coêlho et al. 2023 Davies et al. 2016 | |
Active involvement in bioturbation and pedogenesis, organic litter degradation and decomposition, water infiltration and runoff, nutrient cycling, soil animal and microbial diversity, and vegetation growth and diversity | Eze et al. 2020 | |
Plant growth promoting | Bacillus cereus TSH77 and Bacillus endophyticus TSH42 isolated from termite mound soils were used to bacterial the rhizome of Curcuma longa. Both strains showed remarkable (PGP) activities | Chauhan et al. 2017 |
Improving sunflower yield requires a better understanding of structural, functional, and plant-growth promotion, conservation of ecosystem function, and sustainable agriculture | Li et al. 2022 | |
Play an important role in soil ecology; transporting and mixing soil and organic material from different horizons (enrich the crop field with available nitrogen, total phosphorous, and an organic carbon than the adjacent soil) | Devi and Thakur 2018 | |
Beneficial to the environment, mainly as efficient decomposers of organic matter for plant growth promotion | Santos 2020 |