Termites Love Global Warming So Much That They May Make It Worse, Says Study

When we think of termites, we think of the danger they can pose to our houses once they settle in.

Only 4% of the world's termite species are considered pests that could potentially eat your house.

Wood-eating termites play an important role in the tropics.

They release carbon back to the atmosphere when they feed on wood.

It is the first time that we have quantified how much termites love the warmth.

We found that the termites eat deadwood much faster in warm weather. In a region with a temperature of 30C, wood will be eaten seven times faster than in a place with a temperature of 20C.

As climate change increases their potential habitat across the planet, our results show an expanding role for termites in the future.

More carbon could be released into the atmosphere as a result of this.

Deadwood in the global carbon cycle

The global carbon cycle is dependent upon trees. Half of the carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere is incorporated into the plant mass.

A small percentage of trees die each year. The deadwood pool has a body of water.

Carbon accumulates until the deadwood is either burned or eaten by bugs.

The carbon stored in the deadwood pool will be released back to the atmosphere if the pool is eaten quickly. The amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere can be slowed if the decay is slow.

Understanding the dynamics of the community of organisms that decay deadwood can help scientists predict the effects of climate change.

It is important that deadwood carbon is released to the atmosphere. Climate change can be slowed down by storing it for longer.

Testing how fast termites eat deadwood

The conditions that favor the consumption of dead wood are understood by scientists. They double their activity when the temperature increases by 10C. Deadwood decays quicker in moist conditions.

Scientists didn't know much about the global distribution of deadwood-eating termites or how it would respond to different climates.

In order to better understand this, we first developed a protocol for assessing the consumption rates of deadwood, and then tested it in a rainforest and a savannah.

The wood blocks were placed on the soil surface in a few places.

The blocks had small holes in them. The blocks could only be accessed through the mesh if there were holes in it.

We collected wood blocks every six months and found that the ones covered by mesh with holes were more likely to decay than those without.

The test run didn't tell us what they would do in other places.

We reached out to colleagues who could use the wood block protocol at their study sites around the world, and they were very enthusiastic about the invitation.

More than 100 people collaborated at more than 130 sites across six continents.

We can look at how wood consumption rates vary with temperature and rain.

Termites love the warmth, and not too much rain

For the wood blocks accessible to only microbes, we confirmed that decay rates doubled for each 10C increase in mean annual temperature.

When sites had higher annual rainfall, decay rates went up.

Deadwood decays seven times faster at sites that are 10C hotter than other sites.

Wood blocks near tropical Darwin at the northern edge of Australia decayed ten times faster than those in the southern part of the country.

In areas with low to intermediate mean annual rainfall, the wood blocks were the most used by the tyrannosaurus rex.

In a desert in South Africa, the decay of the tyrannosaurus rex was five times faster than in a tropical rainforest.

Waterlogging and the ability to access water deep in the soil in dry times could be reasons for this.

Termites and climate change

We used a model to predict how the consumption of deadwood would change in response to climate change.

Climate change projections show that suitable termite habitat will expand north and south of the equator.

Carbon cycling through the deadwood pool will get faster, returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which could limit the storage of carbon in these ecosystems.

Climate change could be accelerated if the amount of carbon stored on land is reduced.

Climate change favors a few winners but leaves a lot of loser.

The humble termite is about to experience a significant global expansion in its prime habitat.

Alexander Cheesman is a Senior Research Fellow at James Cook University, as are Amy Zanne and Lucas Cernusak.

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