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Research Article

Morphogenesis of termite mounds

View ORCID ProfileSamuel A. Ocko, View ORCID ProfileAlexander Heyde, and View ORCID ProfileL. Mahadevan
PNAS February 26, 2019 116 (9) 3379-3384; first published February 11, 2019; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818759116
Samuel A. Ocko
aDepartment of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
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Alexander Heyde
bDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138;
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L. Mahadevan
bDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138;
cPaulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138;
dDepartment of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138;
eKavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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  • For correspondence: lmahadev@g.harvard.edu
  1. Edited by Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved December 17, 2018 (received for review November 7, 2018)

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Significance

Termite mounds are the result of the collective behavior of termites working to modify their physical environment, which in turn affects their behavior. During mound construction, environmental factors such as heat flow and gas exchange affect the building behavior of termites, and the resulting change in mound geometry in turn modifies the response of the internal mound environment to external thermal oscillations. Our study highlights the principles of self-organized animal architecture driven by the coupling of environmental physics to organismal behavior and might serve as a natural inspiration for the design of sustainable human architectures.

Abstract

Several species of millimetric-sized termites across Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America collectively construct large, meter-sized, porous mound structures that serve to regulate mound temperature, humidity, and gas concentrations. These mounds display varied yet distinctive morphologies that range widely in size and shape. To explain this morphological diversity, we introduce a mathematical model that couples environmental physics to insect behavior: The advection and diffusion of heat and pheromones through a porous medium are modified by the mound geometry and, in turn, modify that geometry through a minimal characterization of termite behavior. Our model captures the range of naturally observed mound shapes in terms of a minimal set of dimensionless parameters and makes testable hypotheses for the response of mound morphology to external temperature oscillations and internal odors. Our approach also suggests mechanisms by which evolutionary changes in odor production rate and construction behavior coupled to simple physical laws can alter the characteristic mound morphology of termites.

  • termite mound
  • animal architecture
  • niche construction
  • convection
  • porous media

Footnotes

  • ↵1S.A.O. and A.H. contributed equally to this work.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: lmahadev{at}g.harvard.edu.
  • Author contributions: S.A.O., A.H., and L.M. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1818759116/-/DCSupplemental.

Published under the PNAS license.

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Morphogenesis of termite mounds
Samuel A. Ocko, Alexander Heyde, L. Mahadevan
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2019, 116 (9) 3379-3384; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1818759116

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Morphogenesis of termite mounds
Samuel A. Ocko, Alexander Heyde, L. Mahadevan
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2019, 116 (9) 3379-3384; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1818759116
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 116 (9)
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Article Classifications

  • Physical Sciences
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Mathematical Model of Mound Morphogenesis
    • Scaling of Mound Size, Shape, and Construction Time
    • Numerical Simulations of Mound Morphospace
    • Discussion: Physics, Behavior, and Architecture
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
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