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. 2022 Sep 23;377(6613):1440-1444.
doi: 10.1126/science.abo3856. Epub 2022 Sep 22.

Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates

Amy E Zanne  1   2 Habacuc Flores-Moreno  3 Jeff R Powell  4 William K Cornwell  5 James W Dalling  6   7 Amy T Austin  8 Aimée T Classen  9 Paul Eggleton  10 Kei-Ichi Okada  11 Catherine L Parr  12   13   14 E Carol Adair  15 Stephen Adu-Bredu  16   17 Md Azharul Alam  18 Carolina Alvarez-Garzón  19 Deborah Apgaua  20 Roxana Aragón  21 Marcelo Ardon  22 Stefan K Arndt  23 Louise A Ashton  24 Nicholas A Barber  25 Jacques Beauchêne  26 Matty P Berg  27   28 Jason Beringer  29 Matthias M Boer  4 José Antonio Bonet  30 Katherine Bunney  13 Tynan J Burkhardt  31 Dulcinéia Carvalho  32 Dennis Castillo-Figueroa  33   34 Lucas A Cernusak  35 Alexander W Cheesman  35 Tainá M Cirne-Silva  32 Jamie R Cleverly  35 Johannes H C Cornelissen  36 Timothy J Curran  18 André M D'Angioli  37 Caroline Dallstream  38 Nico Eisenhauer  39   40 Fidele Evouna Ondo  41 Alex Fajardo  42 Romina D Fernandez  21 Astrid Ferrer  6 Marco A L Fontes  32 Mark L Galatowitsch  43 Grizelle González  44 Felix Gottschall  45 Peter R Grace  46 Elena Granda  47 Hannah M Griffiths  12 Mariana Guerra Lara  8 Motohiro Hasegawa  48 Mariet M Hefting  49 Nina Hinko-Najera  50 Lindsay B Hutley  51 Jennifer Jones  6 Anja Kahl  52 Mirko Karan  35   53 Joost A Keuskamp  54   55 Tim Lardner  29 Michael Liddell  35 Craig Macfarlane  56 Cate Macinnis-Ng  31 Ravi F Mariano  32 M Soledad Méndez  8 Wayne S Meyer  57 Akira S Mori  58 Aloysio S Moura  32 Matthew Northwood  51 Romà Ogaya  59 Rafael S Oliveira  60 Alberto Orgiazzi  61 Juliana Pardo  62 Guille Peguero  63 Josep Penuelas  64   65 Luis I Perez  8 Juan M Posada  66 Cecilia M Prada  6 Tomáš Přívětivý  67 Suzanne M Prober  56   68 Jonathan Prunier  69 Gabriel W Quansah  70 Víctor Resco de Dios  71   72 Ronny Richter  52   73   74 Mark P Robertson  13 Lucas F Rocha  32 Megan A Rúa  75 Carolina Sarmiento  7   76 Richard P Silberstein  77   78 Mateus C Silva  79 Flávia Freire Siqueira  32 Matthew Glenn Stillwagon  22 Jacqui Stol  80 Melanie K Taylor  81   82 François P Teste  83 David Y P Tng  20 David Tucker  46 Manfred Türke  39   40 Michael D Ulyshen  81 Oscar J Valverde-Barrantes  84 Eduardo van den Berg  79 Richard S P van Logtestijn  85 G F Ciska Veen  86 Jason G Vogel  87 Timothy J Wardlaw  88 Georg Wiehl  56 Christian Wirth  52   73 Michaela J Woods  75 Paul-Camilo Zalamea  7   76
Affiliations

Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates

Amy E Zanne et al. Science. .

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.

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