Termites, as a kind of nesting social insects, are often confused as worldwide "pests" because some of their groups have great destructive effects. The vast majority of termites can regulate ecosystem functions and ser-vices by participating in biogeochemical cycles, known as "ecosystem engineers". We reviewed studies on the effects of termites on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of mound soil ecosystems and the composition and diversity of plant communities. Termites could form unique soil "biogenic aggregates" and "resource heterogeneity patches", which affect microbial community structure, extracellular enzyme activity, physicochemical property and greenhouse gas emission, thereby affecting plant growth, community composition and structure, and vegetation productivity. However, this effect significantly differed among termite groups and functional groups, and was dependent on regional soil environment and microclimate conditions. Meanwhile, termite-mound could effectively improve ecosystem adaptation or resistance to environmental stress through the above process. Future research should focus on the following directions: 1) studying the trophic cascading effect of termite-centered soil multilevel biological network and the potential effect on biogeochemical cycle from microscale (aggregate level) to macroscale (landscape level); 2) exploring the potential of termite mound soil as a fertility amendment in tropical regions, and mining beneficial microbial functional genes to develop related products for termite control.
白蚁作为一种巢居式社会性昆虫,其部分类群具有重大破坏作用,常被人们混淆为世界性“害虫”。然而,绝大多数白蚁能够通过参与生物地球化学循环来调节植被和土壤的重要生态功能和服务,被誉为“生态系统工程师”。本文综述了白蚁对巢穴土壤物理、化学、生物特性及其周边植物群落组成和多样性等的影响。白蚁可以形成独特的土壤“生物团聚体”和“资源异质性斑块”,影响微生物群落结构、胞外酶活性、土壤理化性质和温室气体排放等,进而影响植被生长发育、组成结构及生产力水平。这种效应在不同白蚁类群和功能群间存在差异,且受区域土壤环境和微气候条件等影响。白蚁巢穴可通过上述过程有效提高区域生态系统适应或抵御外界环境胁迫的能力。今后研究需重点关注以下方向:1)从微观尺度(团聚体水平)到宏观尺度(景观水平),探索以白蚁为核心的土壤生物营养级联效应过程及其对生物地球化学循环的驱动机制;2)探究将白蚁巢穴土壤开发为热带地区土壤肥力改良剂的潜力,并挖掘巢穴有益微生物功能基因用于病害防治等产品研发。.
Keywords: microbial interaction; nutrient cyclying; plant community; soil biogenic structure; termite-mound; water-air exchange.