New research suggests the dirt mounds made by termites could be preventing deserts from spreading into semi-arid ecosystems, making these areas more resilient to climate change.

According to the study, termite mounds often serve as oases of plant life in otherwise dry and desolate regions. This may provide no comfort to homeowners with wood-chomping termites under their houses, but termites turn out to be critical to ecosystems since the mound oases help sustain both big and small wildlife.

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The study used a mathematical model to simulate the changes that take place during desertification and matched the theoretical results with real observations in termite-inhabited regions on the edge of deserts.

Robert Pringle, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Princeton and co-author of the paper, said the unexpected effect termites had in protecting against desertification suggest other tunnel-building animals such as ants, prairie dogs and gophers may have a similar role.

He explained that termite mounds store nutrients and moisture, and (through internal tunnels) allow water to better penetrate soil. As a result, vegetation flourishes on and near termite mounds in ecosystems otherwise highly vulnerable to "desertification," meaning the environment's collapse into desert.

"I like to think of termites as the linchpins of the ecosystem in more than one way. They increase the productivity of the system, but they also make it more stable, more resilient," said Professor Pringle.

Termites are "eusocial" insects, meaning they live in colonies of overlapping generations and have a division of labor based on a caste system much like ants and bees. They live off dead and decaying matter and are critical for the re-cycling of soil nutrients, but they can cause havoc to timber homes.

The new study was published in the journal, Science.

Tagstiny termites, Ecosystem, desertification, vegetation, Desert, termites