The role of mound functions and local environment in the diversity of termite mound structures.

Mound structures that soil termites build have diverse morphologies. Previous observational studies documented that mounds are built to provide regulated environments for the termites that live within them and their structures are formed in ways to support this purpose under the influence of the mounds' immediate environment. The objective of this study is to provide a methodology and a predictive computational model to investigate the reason behind the different but systematic shapes of termite mounds, considering all the relevant forces imposed on them and their thermoregulatory and gas-exchange functions.

How the thermal environment shapes the structure of termite mounds.

A computational model has been developed to predict the role of environment in the forms and functions of termite mounds. The proposed model considers the most relevant forces involved in the heat transfer process of termite mounds, while also reflecting their gas-exchange function. The method adopts a system configuration procedure to determine thermally optimized mound structures.