How Do Termites Help Facilitate the Carbon Cycle?
WouterTermites play a crucial role in ecosystems in the tropics. They are soil ecosystem engineers, contributing to the carbon cycle by breaking down dead wood. They also release methane as a greenhouse gas. As temperatures rise, the range of termites will expand across the globe.
Among the factors that determine termite activity are climate change and the distribution of woody biomass. Decay rates in woody biomass vary from region to region, and the degree to which they are affected by climate changes is an important aspect of the global carbon cycle. A large part of the annual forest carbon sink is immobilized in dead wood, but only a small portion of the carbon stored in dead wood remains in the soil.
As temperatures rise, the distribution of termites will expand in the Southern Hemisphere, a hot and arid bioregion. This expansion could increase the rate of wood-based carbon release, as termites may migrate to ecosystems in which they are not currently present. This could increase the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by humans.
The termite-associated decay rate was found to be 6.8 times higher for every 10 degree Celsius increase in temperature. This suggests that termite colonies are less tolerant of changes in temperature, which has implications for carbon storage. The study used a tropical lowland forest in Barro Colorado Island, Panama.
The resulting data were evaluated with climate change models. These findings provide a framework for understanding how wood-based C is released and incorporated into the soil matrix.
