Chemical and physical characteristics of termite mound soil

Abstract

Termite is an amazing creature. Termite mound built by termite is hard and strong. Termite is considered as pests as they can cause damage to building and crops. However, termite also plays important role in ecosystem in term of soil composition and fertility improvement. The mound is built using a combination of soil, mud, chewed wood, saliva and termite’s feces. This modified mound soil have influence the hardness and soil component of termite mound. The purpose of this study is to investigate the chemical and physical characteristics of termite mound soil. In term of chemical analysis, it shows that silicon element is significantly high in termite mound soil (53.47 %). Silicon is hard and mainly occurs in nature as the oxide and silicates. pH value of termite mound is alkaline. Termite mound also contains phosphorus. It is influence by organic matter content from termite’s feces which is enriched in clay-organic complexes and organic matter. In term of physical analysis, the result getting from Atterberg limit experiment shows that termite mound soil is clay soil type. Termite mound soil reached a liquid limit at 40.8 % water content and start to exhibit plastic behavior at 22.59 % water content. High liquid limit and plastic limit indicates that termite mound have high clay fraction. The maximum dry density obtain is 1.74 g/cm3 and optimum moisture content is 14.9 %. At this point, soil structure will not dispersed like soil with higher water content and are stronger and less flocculated soil structure like soil with lower water content. The application of termite mound suggested for this study is termite mound brick. The brick is produced from 100 % termite mound soil.