Termites can decompose more than half of deadwood in tropical rainforest

Hannah M Griffiths; Louise A Ashton; Theodore A Evans; Catherine L Parr; Paul Eggleton

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.012

Termites can decompose more than half of deadwood in tropical rainforest

Curr Biol. 2019 Feb 18;29(4):R118-R119. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.012.

Authors

Hannah M Griffiths¹, Louise A Ashton², Theodore A Evans³, Catherine L Parr⁴, Paul Eggleton⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK.
² School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK; Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: lashton@hku.hk.
³ Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
⁴ School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK; School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, South Africa.
⁵ Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK.

PMID: 30779897
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.012

Abstract

Termite-mediated decomposition is an important, but often overlooked, component of the carbon cycle. Using a large-scale suppression experiment in Borneo, Griffiths et al. found that termites contribute between 58 and 64% of mass loss from dead wood.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Animals
Borneo
Carbon Cycle*
Isoptera / physiology*
Malaysia
Rainforest*
Wood*