Impact of Termite Activity on Soil Properties: A Study from Mining Area, Andhra Pradesh, South India

Abstract

Textural characteristics of soils of termite mounds from two different geological formations in around barite mining area of Vemula Andhra Pradesh are studied and compared with corresponding adjacent termite- free surface soils. Generally in the study area irrespective of the type of the mound termite soils contain higher content of sand and clay and lower content of silt than that of their adjoining surface soils. Grain-size parameters, viz., mean, median, sorting, skewness and kurtosis reveal that the median and mean behave in a similar way in all the termite soils and surface soils in two geological formations. Scatter plots of different combinations of the grain-size parameters are sensitive enough to differentiate the two geological formations and also the termite soils and surface soils.