Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates

Authors

Amy E. Zanne
Habacuc Flores-Moreno
Jeff R. Powell
William K. Cornwell
James W. Dalling
Amy T. Austin
Aimée T. Classen
Paul Eggleton
Kei-Ichi Okada
Catherine L. Parr
E. Carol Adair
Stephen Adu-Bredu
Azharul Alam
Carolina Alvarez-Garzón
Deborah Apgaua
Roxana Aragón
Marcelo Ardon
Stefan K. Arndt
Louise A. Ashton
Nicholas A. Barber
Jacques Beauchêne
Matty P. Berg
Jason Beringer
Matthias M. Boer
José Antonio Bonet
Katherine Bunney
Tynan J. Burkhardt
Dulcinéia Carvalho
Dennis Castillo-Figueroa
Lucas A. Cernusak
Alexander W. Cheesman
Tainá M. Cirne-Silva
Jamie R. Cleverly
Johannes H. C. Cornelissen
Timothy J. Curran
André M. D’Angioli
Caroline Dallstream
Nico Eisenhauer
Fidele Evouna Ondo
Alex Fajardo
Romina D. Fernandez
Astrid Ferrer
Marco A. L. Fontes
Mark L. Galatowitsch
Grizelle González
Felix Gottschall
Peter R. Grace
Elena Granda
Hannah M. Griffiths
Mariana Guerra Lara
Motohiro Hasegawa
Mariet M. Hefting
Nina Hinko-Najera
Lindsay B. Hutley
Jennifer Jones
Anja Kahl
Mirko Karan
Joost A. Keuskamp
Tim Lardner
Michael Liddell
Craig Macfarlane
Cate Macinnis-Ng
Ravi F. Mariano
M. Soledad Méndez
Wayne S. Meyer
Akira S. Mori
Matthew Northwood
Romà Ogaya
Rafael S. Oliveira
Alberto Orgiazzi
Juliana Pardo
Guille Peguero
Josep Penuelas
Luis I. Perez
Juan M. Posada
Cecilia M. Prada
Tomáš Přívětivý
Jonathan Prunier
Gabriel W. Quansah
Víctor Resco de Dios
Ronny Richter
Mark P. Robertson
Lucas F. Rocha
Megan A. Rúa
Carolina Sarmiento
Richard Silberstein, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Mateus C. Silva
Flávia Freire Siqueira
Matthew Glenn Stillwagon
Jacqui Stol
Melanie K. Taylor
François P. Teste
David Y. P. Tng
David Tucker
Manfred Türke
Michael D. Ulyshen
Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes
Eduardo van den Berg
Richard S. P. van Logtestijn
G. F. (Ciska) Veen
Jason G. Vogel
Timothy J. Wardlaw
Georg Wiehl
Christian Wirth
Michaela J. Woods
Paul-Camilo Zalamea

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Volume

377

Issue

6613

First Page

1440

Last Page

1444

PubMed ID

36137034

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

School

School of Science

RAS ID

52744

Comments

Zanne, A. E., Flores-Moreno, H., Powell, J. R., Cornwell, W. K., Dalling, J. W., Austin, A. T., ... & Zalamea, P. C. (2022). Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates. Science, 377(6613), 1440-1444.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo3856

Abstract

Deadwood is a large global carbon store with its store size partially determined by biotic decay. Microbial wood decay rates are known to respond to changing temperature and precipitation. Termites are also important decomposers in the tropics but are less well studied. An understanding of their climate sensitivities is needed to estimate climate change effects on wood carbon pools. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature (with decay increasing > 6.8 times per 10°C increase in temperature)-even more so than microbes. Termite decay effects were greatest in tropical seasonal forests, tropical savannas, and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth's surface.

DOI

10.1126/science.abo3856

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