The mystery of the broken eggs 🥚 on the top of desert dunes in Abu Dhabi UAE
desert
The camel and Tetraena qatarensis synonym Zygophyllum qatarense, have learned to live in a symbiotic relationship in the desert






How Citrullus flora fixes the sand dunes?
The citrullus is a source of food for the wildlife in the desert and the wildlife know the importance and the value of the food provided by the bushes. They eat everything growing in the deserts, some animal eat one and avoid the other but as a main picture, all plants are consumable. Citrullus might be very bitter and poisonus for human but a food of choice for the goats, camels, rodents and the birds. Also, such flora is home to the unique and well adapted fauna of the desert. https://arkbiodiv.com/2020/11/19/enjoy-desert-exploration-with-me/
The Ethnovets in the remote areas use the fruits of the four Mellon for the treatment of the animals as well. https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-4269-9-84 https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-4269-6-16

The seeds of the plant (citrullus) are very good source of food for the rodents. You will always find the burrows of the rodents in the Citrullus wine deep in the desert.



Camels and Termites – A symbiotic relationship is bridged by the gut’s microbiota
Evolution trained termites to survive on flora waste
The unique creature (termites) learned in the long period of evolution – how to survive on the waste of the floral kingdom? Termites are everywhere, (rainforests, buildings, farmlands, wood stores, etc) but the deserts have even more specialized termites. Usually, termites chew up fallen leaves and dead wood everywhere but in the desert ecosystems, they digest the camel manure (hard balls). This way the termites keep such material under control and return back to nature as food for plants, insects, and animals as well as the microbes in the soil.

Termites’ gut is the habitat of unique bacteria – Decomposing wood and camel manure in the desert
There is a specialized microbiome in the termites’ gut, enabling them to digest the woody and fibrous materials (with special power in the desert). In the journey of evolution, such bacteria (termites’ gut microbiota) either traveled from the camels’ gut to the termites or vice versa, enabling the camels to act as the largest termite in the desert. Termites, rely on flagellated eukaryotic symbionts in the hindgut to cooperatively digest their wood diet and the same job is done in the camel gut to digest tough cellulosic contents. In short videos, you can see the power of termites on my youtube channel. https://youtu.be/Kqb9LNpPe-A https://youtu.be/2-tm2cFIZSU

Termites harbor complex gut microbiota, which comprises unicellular eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea. On the other hand, a study confirmed the camel rumen’s microbiome as a dense and yet largely untapped source of enzymes with the potential to be used in a range of biotechnological processes including biofuel, and fine chemicals, and food processing industries. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6071333/
The termites inhibit diverse ecosystems
But they play a key role in many natural ecosystems. Scientists have known for years that in tropical forests, termites chew up fallen leaves and dead wood, keeping the fallen material under control and shepherding nutrients from the dead material back into the system to be used by other plants, insects, and animals. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/termites-protect-rainforests-climate-drought



Way forward
The termites and the camels are poorly understood as being the pivotal players in the desert ecosystem. I would suggest the young scientists come forward and find the delicate symbiotic relationship between the desert, camel, termites, and microbiome.






Camel Manure Ball (CMB) and Wood Colonized by the Termites in the Desert
Termites play an amazing role in the formation of soil. Termites are the precious member of the Detritivore, converting the rough and tough material back into fertile soil, providing food for the soil microbiome.






Termite mounds are the structures in several tropical ecosystems that are primarily built by termites (Jouquet et al. 2015). Soil from termite mounds is rich in mineral nutrients and organic matter, and these make it a suitable habitat for microorganisms (Nithyatharani and Kavitha 2018).