Termites are the uncrowned kings of the African savannah, research has shown.
The tiny insects tower above lions, elephants and giraffes when it comes to shaping and maintaining the ecosystem, said scientists.
Grassy termite mounds measuring some 30 feet in diameter and 90 to 300 feet apart form a scattered mosaic of ecological hotspots, the study revealed.
Satellite images show for the first time how each mound marks the centre of an island of productive life.
Close to the mounds plants grow more rapidly and populations of small animals, such as lizards, grow in size.
The outbursts of flora and fauna around termite mounds have a major ecological impact and play a vital role in helping life to flourish on the African plains.
"It's not always the charismatic predators - animals like lions and leopards - that exert the greatest control on populations," said lead researcher Robert Pringle, from Harvard University in Boston. "As E.O. Wilson likes to point out, in many respects it's the little things that run the world. In the case of the savannah, it appears these termites have tremendous influence and are central to the functioning of the ecosystem."
The research grew out of previous work on the dwarf gecko in Kenya.
After observing unexpectedly high numbers of the lizards around termite mounds, Dr Pringle launched a wider-scale ecological investigation.
What was seen in field studies stood out even more clearly in satellite images. Termite mounds, at first glance relatively inconspicuous features blending into the Kenyan grassland, were discovered to support dense aggregations of plant and animal life.
The bursts of ecological productivity were highly organised and evenly dispersed, like squares on a chessboard.
Together, they formed an optimised plant and animal network that was closely tied to the ordered distribution of the termite mounds.
"In essence, the highly regular spatial pattern of fertile mounds generated by termites actually increases overall levels of ecosystem production, and it does so in such a profound way," said Todd Palmer, from the University of Florida, a co-author of the research reported in the online journal Public Library of Science Biology.
"Seen from above, the gridwork of termite mounds in the savannah is not just a pretty picture. The over-dispersion, or regular distribution of these termite mounds, plays an important role in elevating the services this ecosystem provides."
The scientists suspect a number of mechanisms contribute to the ecological impact of termite activity.
Termites, which teem in their millions in the mounds, are believed to improve water drainage by importing coarse particles into the otherwise fine-grained soil.