This communication assesses advances in our knowledge of the beneficial influences of termites on ecosystem functioning and services. Termites are amongst the main macroinvertebrate decomposers in arid and semi-arid environments and exert additional impacts through the creation of biostructures (mounds, galleries, sheetings, etc.) with different soil physical and chemical properties. Unfortunately, the positive ‘or bright’ role of termites is often overshadowed by their dark side, i.e. their status as pests threatening agriculture in the tropics (635 vs. 164 articles referenced in WoS with termites and either pest or ecosystem engineer as keywords. Source: WoS, April 2019).

Termite impacts on soil properties and water dynamics can be differentiated at four different scales: (i) at the landscape scale, where termites act as heterogeneity drivers; (ii) at the soil profile scale, where termites act as soil bioturbators; (iii) at the aggregate scale, where they act as aggregate reorganizers; (iv) and last, at the clay mineral scale, where they can act as weathering agents [1Jouquet P., Bottinelli N., Shanbhag R.R., Bourguignon T., Traoré S., Abbasi S.A. Termites: the neglected soil engineers of tropical soils Soil Sci. 2016 ;  181 (3/4) : 157-165 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références].

In this communication, two examples of ecosystem services provided by termites are given.

The first describes the positive impact of termites on water infiltration and nutrient guidance at small scale through the production of foraging galleries in soil [2Cheik S., Bottinelli N., Tran M.T., Doan T.T., Jouquet P. Quantification of three dimensional characteristics of macrofauna macropores and their effects on soil hydraulic conductivity in northern Vietnam Front. Environ. Sci. 2019 ; 10.3389/fenvs.2019.00031

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références] and how this activity can be used to improve agro-ecosystem functioning in arid and semi-arid environments [3Roose E., Kabore V., Guenat C. Zai practice: a West African traditional rehabilitation system for semiarid degraded lands, a case study in Burkina Faso Arid Soil Res. Rehab. 1999 ;  13 (4) : 343-355 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références].

The second example deals with the construction of mounds and sheeting by termites in “natural” environments [4Jouquet P., Chaudhary E., Kumar A.R.V. Sustainable use of termite activity in agro-ecosystems with reference to earthworms. A review Agron. Sustain. Dev. 2018 ;  38 : 3

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références] and how these “patches of biodiversity and fertility” can be used in the lower Mekong Basin to reduce food insecurity and to provide a better access to health [5Miyagawa S., Koyama Y., Kokubo M., Matsushita Y., Adachi Y., Sivilay S., Kawakubo N., Oba S. Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos J. Ethnobiol. Ethnomed. 2011 ;  7 : 24 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références] (Fig. 1).

Finally, the perception of termite mounds in Southern Indian rural environments (Fig. 2) is discussed and used as example of the cultural services that can be provided by termites in some circumstances. The story of Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, is explained and used as a parable for highlighting the interconnection between the “bright” and “dark” sides of termites, and more generally that to get the bright we also need the dark.