Termite environmental tolerances are more linked to desiccation than temperature in modified tropical forests
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Woon, JS
Boyle, MJW
Ewers, RM
Chung, A
Eggleton, P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Termites are vital members of old-growth tropical forests, being perhaps the main decomposers of dead plant material at all stages of humification (decay). Termite abundance and diversity drop in selectively logged forest, and it has been hypothesised that this drop is due to a low tolerance to changing micro-climatic conditions. Specifically, the thermal adaptation hypothesis suggests that tropical species are operating at, or close to, their thermal optimum, and therefore, small temperature increases can have drastic effects on abundance, however, other climatic variables such as humidity might also cause termite abundance to drop. We tested termite tolerance to these two climatic variables (temperature and humidity). We found that termites had a higher CTmax than expected, and that three traits, feeding group, body sclerotisation, and nesting type, were significantly correlated with CTmax. We found that termite desiccation tolerance was low, however, and that all termite genera lost significantly more water in a desiccated environment than in a control. Body sclerotisation, the only trait that was tested, was surprisingly not significantly correlated with desiccation tolerance. Our results suggest that desiccation, rather than ambient temperature, may be the determining factor in dictating termite distributions in modified forests. Should climate change lead to reduced humidity within tropical rainforests, termite abundances and the rates of the functions they perform could be severely reduced.
Date Issued
2019-02-01
Date Acceptance
2018-09-26
Citation
Insectes Sociaux, 2019, 66 (1), pp.57-64
ISSN
0020-1812
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
57
End Page
64
Journal / Book Title
Insectes Sociaux
Volume
66
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
License URL
Sponsor
Rainforest Research Sdn Bhd
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000459790000007&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
LBEE_P34395
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Entomology
Climate
CTmax
Decomposition
Ectotherms
Humidity
OIL PALM PLANTATION
LOWLAND POPULATIONS
BODY MELANISATION
DROSOPHILA
RESPONSES
DISTURBANCE
RESISTANCE
THERMOREGULATION
BIODIVERSITY
ECTOTHERMS
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-10-05