Do Termites Release Methane Into the Atmosphere?

Termites are known to build cathedral-like mounds in tropical forests. They are very beneficial to the natural environment, eating dead plant material and recycling it into fertilizer. However, they are also known to release methane into the atmosphere, and this could have important implications for the global climate.

In the early 1980s, three American scientists published a paper in the journal Science, concluding that termites were responsible for 30 percent of the world’s methane emissions. The researchers used test tubes to measure the methane produced by termites, and concluded that termites could produce up to 150 million tonnes of methane a year.

In addition to their contribution to methane emissions, termites also produce a significant amount of ammonia in their nests. The ammonia concentrations in their mounds are higher than those in other animals’.

These ammonia concentrations, as well as their methane emissions, are likely due to the methanotrophic bacteria living in the soil beneath the mounds. These bacteria consume half of the methane released by termites.

Termite species consume a minimum of 49 mg of wood per gram of termite per day. This means that they consume more than 10 times the carbon dioxide generated by other animals.

There is also evidence that the hindgut of some termite species has elevated hydrogen partial pressures. The elevated partial pressures are caused by the absence of oxygen in the hindgut. Those elevated hydrogen partial pressures lead to a delayed continuous increase in methane emission.

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