Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T21:59:02.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Termite transects from Buton Island, Sulawesi, have a low diversity compared with Sundaland sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2021

F. Hasan ,
D. T. Jones ,
S. Syaukani  and
P. Eggleton
F. Hasan
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
D. T. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
S. Syaukani
Affiliation:
Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
P. Eggleton*
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
*
Author for correspondence: P. Eggleton, Email: p.eggleton@nhm.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We used a standardised transect method to compare lowland forest termite assemblages in Buton Island, Sulawesi, with transects in Sundaland. The four Buton transects were extremely depauperate with species density ranging from 1 to 6 species, which is around 10% of the species density in 11 described Sundaland transects. Soil-feeding species were absent from the Buton transects but represent some 43% of species in the Sundaland transects. The Buton transects have relatively high soil pH (6.7–7.9), which may be associated with depauperate termite assemblages. Most termite genera recorded in Sulawesi are wood nesters that can raft in floating wood, which is probably how they arrived in Sulawesi. The Macrotermitinae (fungus-growers) do not raft and probably flew across serendipitously. Geographic isolation, both on Buton and in Sulawesi more generally, and Buton’s underlying geology causing high soil pH, may account for the near-absence of soil-nesters and soil-feeders, none of which are known to raft.

Keywords

Butondispersalfunctional groupMakassar StraitOdontotermessoil-feedingSundalandWallace LineWallaceaultramafic soil
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , July 2021 , pp. 161 - 164
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aanen, DK and Eggleton, P (2005) Fungus-growing termites in African rain forest. Current Biology 15, 851–855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abe, T (1984) Colonisation of the Krakatau Islands by termites (Insecta: Isoptera). Physiology and Ecology Japan 21, 63–88.Google Scholar
Arab, DA, Namyatova, A, Evans, TA, Cameron, SL, Yeates, DK, Ho, SYW and Lo, N (2017) Parallel evolution of mound-building and grass-feeding in Australian nasute termites. Biology Letters 13, 20160665 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ashton, LA, Griffiths, HM, Parr, CL, Evans, TA, Didham, RK, Hasan, F, Teh, YA, Tin, HS, Vairappan, CS and Eggleton, P (2019) Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest. Science 363, 174.Google ScholarPubMed
Bignell, DE and Eggleton, P (2000) Termites in ecosystems. In Abe, T, Bignell, DE and Higashi, M (eds), Termites: evolution, sociality, symbioses, ecology. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 363–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourguignon, T, Lo, N, Sobotnik, J, Ho, S, Iqbal, N, Coissac, E, Lee, M, Jendryka, M, Sillam-Dusses, D, Krizkova, B, Roisin, Y and Evans, T (2017) Mitochondrial Phylogenomics Resolves the Global Spread of Higher Termites, Ecosystem Engineers of the Tropics. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34, 589–597.Google ScholarPubMed
Bourguignon, T, Lo, N, Sobotnik, J, Sillam-Dusses, D, Roisin, Y and Evans, T (2016) Oceanic dispersal, vicariance and human introduction shaped the modern distribution of the termites Reticulitermes, Heterotermes and Coptotermes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collins, NM (1984) The termites (Isoptera) of the Gunung Mulu National Park, with a key to the genera known from Sarawak. Sarawak Museum Journal 30, 65–87.Google Scholar
Davies, RG, Eggleton, P, Jones, DT, Gathorne-Hardy, FJ and Hernández, LM (2003) Evolution of termite functional diversity: analysis and synthesis of local ecological and regional influences on local species richness. Journal of Biogeography 30, 847–877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donovan, SE, Eggleton, P and Bignell, DE (2001) Gut content analysis and a new feeding group classification of termites. Ecological Entomology 26, 356–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, TA, Dawes, TZ, Ward, PR and Lo, N (2011) Ants and Termites Increase Crop Yield in a Dry Climate. Nature Communications 2, 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, F., Syaukani, and Eggleton, P. (2001). The effects of altitude and rainfall on the composition of the termites (Isoptera) of the Leuser Ecosystem (Sumatra, Indonesia). Journal of Tropical Ecology, 17(3), 379–393. doi:10.1017/S0266467401001262 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, FJ, Syaukani, Davies, RG, Eggleton, P and Jones, DT (2002) Quaternary rainforest refugia in south-east Asia: using termites (Isoptera) as indicators. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 75(4), 453–466, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1095-8312.2002.00031.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, FJ (2004) The termites of Sundaland: a taxonomic review. Sarawak Museum Journal 60, 89–133.Google Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, FJ, Collins, NM, Buxton, RD and Eggleton, P (2000a) A faunistic review of the termites (Insecta: Isoptera) of Sulawesi, including an updated checklist of the species. Malayan Nature Journal 54–4, 347–353.Google Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, FJ, Jones, DT and Mawdsley, NA (2000b) The recolonization of the Krakatau islands by termites (Isoptera), and their biogeographic origins. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 71, 251–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holt, JA and Lepage, M (2000) Termites and Soil Properties. Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 389–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, DT and Eggleton, P (2000) Sampling Termite Assemblages in Tropical Forests: Testing a Rapid Biodiversity Assessment Protocol. Journal of Applied Ecology 37, 191–203.Google Scholar
Jones, DT, Rahman, H, Bignell, DE and Prasetyo, AH (2010) Forests on ultramafic-derived soils in Borneo have very depauperate termite assemblages. Journal of Tropical Ecology 26, 103–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemner, NA (1934) Systematische und biologische studien uber termiten Javas und Celebes. K. svenska Vetensk. Akad. Handl. 13, 1–241.Google Scholar
Lavelle, P, Chauvel, A and Fragoso, C (1995) Faunal activity in acid soils. In Date, RA, Grundon, NJ, Rayment, GE and Probert, ME (eds.), Plant-Soil Interactions at Low pH: Principles and Management: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Plant-Soil Interactions at Low pH, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 12–16 September 1993. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 201–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michaux, B (2010) Biogeology of Wallacea: geotectonic models, areas of endemism, and natural biogeographical units. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 101, 193–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, N, Mittermeier, RA, Mittermeier, CG, da Fonseca, GAB and Kent, J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nobre, T, Eggleton, P and Aanen, DK (2009) Vertical transmission as the key to the colonization of Madagascar by fungus-growing termites? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: rspb20091373.Google ScholarPubMed
Situmorang, B (1982) The formation and evolution of the Makassar Basin as determined from subsidence curves. Indonesian Petroleum Association Proceedings of the Annual Convention 11, 83–107.Google Scholar
Smith, RB and Silver, E (1991) Geology of a Miocene collision complex, Buton, eastern Indonesia. Geological Society of America Bulletin 103, 660–678.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susanto, RD, Field, A, Gordon, AL and Adi, TR (2012) Variability of Indonesian Throughflow within Makassar Strait 2004-2009. Journal of Geophysical Research 117/CO9013.Google Scholar
Voris, HK (2000) Maps of Pleistocene sea levels in south-east Asia: shorelines, river systems and time durations. Journal of Biogeography 27, 1153–1167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, AR (1863) On the physical geography of the Malay Archipelago. Journal of Royal Geographical Society 33, 217–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitten, T, Henderson, GS and Mustafa, M (1987) The ecology of Sulawesi. The Ecology of Indonesia Series, volume IV. Clarendon, Vermont, USA: Tuttle Publishing.Google Scholar
Wilson, MEJ and Moss, SJ (1999) Cenozoic paleogeographic evolution of Sulawesi and Borneo. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 145, 303–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar