Matty Berg, Hans Cornelissen and Richard van Logtestijn are co-authors of a new Science paper: “Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates”
Termites are important wood decomposers. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature — even more so than microbes. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth’s surface.
Link to publication: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3856.