Termites and the turnover of dead wood in an arid tropical environment.

The standing crop of woody litter (317 g m) and its rate of production (30.8 g m a) and disappearance (27.8 g m a) were measured in Tsavo National Park, Kenya, at a site with a mean rainfall of 352 mm a. Dead wood took about 11 years to disappear completely. Almost all of this wood is removed by termites, 90% by the fungus-cultivating subfamily Macrotermitinae.