Termite mounds mitigate half of termite methane emissions

PA Nauer; LB Hutley; SK Arndt

Journal article

Termite mounds mitigate half of termite methane emissions

PA Nauer, LB Hutley, SK Arndt

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | NATL ACAD SCIENCES | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1809790115

Abstract

Termites are responsible for ∼1 to 3% of global methane (CH4) emissions. However, estimates of global termite CH4 emissions span two orders of magnitude, suggesting that fundamental knowledge of CH4 turnover processes in termite colonies is missing. In particular, there is little reliable information on the extent and location of microbial CH4 oxidation in termite mounds. Here, we use a one-box model to unify three independent field methods—a gas-tracer test, an inhibitor approach, and a stable-isotope technique—and quantify CH4 production, oxidation, and transport in three North Australian termite species with different feeding habits and mound architectures. We present systematic in situ e..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Stefan Arndt Author

Related Projects (2)

Methane uptake of forest soils

This project will provide a detailed understanding of capacity of soils in Australia to sequester the greenhouse gas methane. It will identi..

IMPACTS OF DEFORESTATION AND AFFORESTATION ON GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, AND CARBON AND WATER RESOURCES IN THE DALY RIVER CATCHMENT, NORTH AUSTRALIA

Over the last decade, north Australia have been viewed as a potentially exploitable resource, given issues of salinisation, soil acidificati..

Grants

Awarded by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank Matthew Northwood and Benedikt Fest for technical assistance; Eleonora Chiri and Linda Luck for help with field work; Theodore Evans for assistance with termite identification; Damien Maher, Adrian Bass, and Elise Pendall for support regarding isotope gas analysis; Martin Schroth for discussions on field test design and analysis; and Chris Greening for comments on an early version of the manuscript. We also acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable contributions in improving the manuscript. We acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council (Grants DP120101735 and LP100100073) and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) OzFlux and the TERN Australian SuperSite Network. P.A.N. was supported by the Early Postdoc Mobility fellowship P2EZP3_155596 from the Swiss National Science Foundation.