Journal article
Diurnal and seasonal variations in CH4 flux from termite mounds in tropical savannas of the Northern Territory, Australia
H Jamali, SJ Livesley, TZ Dawes, GD Cook, LB Hutley, SK Arndt
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology | ELSEVIER | Published : 2011
Abstract
Termites are estimated to contribute between <5 and 19% of the global methane (CH4) emissions. These estimates have large uncertainties because of the limited number of field-based studies and species studied, as well as issues of diurnal and seasonal variations. We measured CH4 fluxes from four common mound-building termite species (Microcerotermes nervosus, M. serratus, Tumulitermes pastinator and Amitermes darwini) diurnally and seasonally in tropical savannas in the Northern Territory, Australia. Our results showed that there were significant diel and seasonal variations of CH4 emissions from termite mounds and we observed large species specific differences. On a diurnal basis, CH4 fluxe..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Australian Research Council for funding this study through ARC Linkage Grant LP0774812. We are thankful to Gus Wanganeen from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Darwin for identifying the termite species, Dr Samantha Grover from Charles Darwin University for helping in the field work and Dr Ian Gordon from the Statistical Consulting Centre, the University of Melbourne for helping in statistical analysis of the data. We thank Dr Richard Williams and Dr Anna Richards from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Darwin for reviewing this manuscript. In Charles Darwin National Park research was carried out with permission from the Northern Territory Government, Australia through permit number 29227.