Fig 1.
Location of the study area in the Department of Caquetá, Amazon region, Colombia.
Base polygon layers for Colombia and Caquetá were sourced from the Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (IGAC) Open Database and are distributed under a CC BY 4.0 license. The South America layer was obtained from Natural Earth, a public domain dataset.
Fig 2.
Boxplots visualizing a) macro, micro, and total porosity; b) bulk density analyzed in composite soil samples of 54 mounds built by soil-feeding termites Patawatermes turricola (M) and the respective control topsoil (depth 0-10 cm) taken in a distance of 5 m next to each mound (UT), highlighting the formation of fertility islands.
Table 1.
Mean ± Standard Error of physical parameters within Patawatermes turricola fertility islands (Mound Soil) and surrounding (Unmodified Topsoil 0-10 cm) in Colombian Amazonian pastures (n = 54). Different letters within the same row indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) as determined by Fisher’s LSD test, highlighting the impact of termite mound-building on soil properties.
Table 2.
Mean ± Standard Error of chemical parameters within Patawatermes turricola fertility islands (Mound Soil) and surrounding (Unmodified Topsoil 0-10 cm) in Colombian Amazonian pastures (n = 54). Different lowercase letters within the same row indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) as determined by Fisher’s LSD test, illustrating the chemical changes associated with termite mound-driven fertility islands. Al³⁺: exchangeable aluminum, H⁺+Al³⁺: exchangeable acidity, BS: base saturation, Ca²⁺: Calcium, ECEC: effective cation exchange capacity, K⁺: Potassium, Mg²⁺: Magnesium, Na⁺: Sodium, Pav: available phosphorus, SOC: soil organic carbon.
Fig 3.
Principal component analysis biplot projected onto the F1/F2 plane and the grouping of sites by soil type. Observation: 0.22; p-value: 0.001. M: Mound Soil, UT: Unmodified Topsoil.
Aggre>0.053–0.25mm: Aggregates >0.053–0.250 mm (%), Aggre>0.250–2mm: Aggregates >0.250–2 mm (%), Aggre>2mm: Aggregates >2 mm (%), Al: exchangeable aluminum (mmol kg-1), Al+H: exchangeable acidity (mmol kg-1), Bd: Bulk density (g cm3), BS: base saturation (%), Ca: Calcium (mmol kg-1), ECEC: effective cation exchange capacity (mmol kg-1), K: Potassium (mmol kg-1), Mg: Magnesium (mmol kg-1), Macro_aggre: Macro-aggregates (%), Micro_aggre: Micro-aggregates (%), Macro_poros: Macro-porosity (%), Mico_poros: Micro-porosity (%), Na: Sodium (mmol kg-1), Pav: available phosphorus (mg kg-1), SOC: soil organic carbon (g kg-1), TP: total porosity, WMD: weighted mean diameter (mm).The contribution of each parameter to the formation of the principal components is represented by a color gradient from blue (low contribution) to red (high contribution).