Turns out Termites Can Accelerate Climate Change: So How?

In our country, it is called by various names, such as white ant, flying ant. termites (the ants) are known to live in colonies and move very quickly. While these small animals do not cause direct harm to humans, they can cause serious problems as they feed on wood and organic materials.

Yet only 4% of termites worldwide can cause serious damage to your home. wood eater Termites are also known to play a large and important role in nature in warm tropical and subtropical ecosystems. It recycles essential nutrients in the soil while feeding on these things, carbon in the atmosphere they let go. An examination of such termite characteristics reveals once again how much these creatures love the heat.

It turns out that termites like warmer environments and may be contributing to climate change.

The study, published in the journal Science, examined issues such as termites’ relationship to heat and their effects on global warming. As a result of their research, the researchers discovered that termites consumes dead wood faster in warmer conditions noticed. This means that termites living in an area with a temperature of 30 degrees have more wood than a place with a temperature of 20 degrees. sevenfold turned out to be faster.

So what does this mean? The results show that CO2 emissions into the atmosphere will increase due to the wood consumed by these species. The researchers used a model to see the effects of termites on climate change. In the exams, termite activity in the coming years there will be a significant increase predicted. This showed that the rapid consumption of dead wood will accelerate climate change.

Understanding termites is ‘essential’ for the future of our planet

Let’s talk about wood consumed by termites. As is well known, trees, which are of great importance to the earth, play a serious role in the carbon cycle by absorbing carbon dioxide. Most trees that grow each year, a small proportion die. This is filled with the carbon that creatures like termites feed on.dead forest it reveals. When these dead woods are consumed quickly, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere. However, if the opposite happens and the decay of wood is slowed, the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere can be reduced.

This is why scientists need to understand the dynamics of organisms that break down dead wood as the threat of climate change increases due to carbon emissions. vital importance It conducts such research by saying that:

The researchers, who achieved new information about termites with a study that lasted months in different regions, also don’t like too much rainalso showed that wood consumption is low in places with generally little to moderate rainfall. For example, the study shows that termite consumption comes from a rainforest in Puerto Rico, in a subtropical desert in South Africa. 5 times more revealed that.