The African savanna has a cornucopia of majestic creatures — lions, elephants and giraffes among them. But behind the scenes, it is the tiny termite that fuels much of this diversity, a new study reports.

Researchers studying termites in Kenya’s central highlands found that the abundance of flora and fauna is markedly higher atop termite mounds.

“We noticed these circular green patches,” said Todd Palmer, a co-author of the study and a professor of biology at the University of Florida. “They had a lot of vegetation and plant material on top of them, and the grass was greener than in other areas.”

Image Credit... Chris Gash

The patches were 30 feet in diameter and spaced several hundred feet apart.

Dr. Palmer and his colleagues did some digging, and underneath each patch they found millions of termites in subterranean mounds. Quantitatively, they found that plants grow about 60 percent larger on the patches compared with other areas. The nitrogen content of the plants on the mound is about 20 percent higher, and trees on mounds bear 120 percent more fruit. Animal populations also dropped off significantly the farther they were located from a patch.