Ideas and perspectives: Beyond microbes – integrating termites into global soil carbon cycling models
- 1Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Canberra, Australia)
Abstract
Termites are major detritivores in tropical and subtropical ecosystems, yet their contributions to the terrestrial carbon cycle remain absent from process-based soil organic carbon (SOC) models. Here, we present a termite carbon module that explicitly represents termite-mediated litter consumption and transfer of ingested carbon into gaseous (CO ₂ , CH ₄ ) and SOC pools. The module integrates biome-specific termite biomass with spatially explicit productivity inputs to quantify termite-driven carbon fluxes within a mass-balance framework. Model simulations show that termites act as spatially heterogeneous carbon processors, accelerating litter turnover while modifying the pathways through which carbon is redistributed between atmospheric and SOC pools. Global sensitivity analysis identifies termite biomass and ingestion capacity as the dominant controls on flux magnitude, whereas carbon partitioning governs the fate of processed carbon. Including termite-mediated pathways in SOC models provides a mechanism for representing faunal controls on decomposition, soil carbon formation, and trace gas emissions, particularly in tropical and seasonally dry ecosystems. Globally, we estimate termites process 1569.4±800.4 Tg C yr ⁻¹ , releasing 864.7±444.5 Tg C yr ⁻¹ as CO ₂ and 7.9±4.9 Tg C yr ⁻¹ as CH ₄ , while transferring 689.3±367.4 Tg C yr ⁻¹ into labile and mineral-associated SOC. Explicit representation of termite-driven carbon fluxes will therefore be important for improving predictions of litter decomposition, SOC formation, and terrestrial carbon-climate feedbacks.
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BibTeX
@article{farooq2026ideas,
title = {{Ideas and perspectives: Beyond microbes – integrating termites into global soil carbon cycling models}},
author = {Umar Farooq and Chiara Pasut and Ying-Ping Wang and Amy E. Zanne and Habacuc Flores-Moreno and Baptiste Joseph Wijas and David I. Forrester and Jacqueline R. England and Bennett Macdonald and Zachary A. Brown and Senani Karunaratne},
journal = {Biogeosciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/bg-23-7029-2026},
url = {https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/23/7029/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Ideas and perspectives: Beyond microbes – integrating termites into global soil carbon cycling models
AU - Umar Farooq
AU - Chiara Pasut
AU - Ying-Ping Wang
AU - Amy E. Zanne
AU - Habacuc Flores-Moreno
AU - Baptiste Joseph Wijas
AU - David I. Forrester
AU - Jacqueline R. England
AU - Bennett Macdonald
AU - Zachary A. Brown
AU - Senani Karunaratne
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Biogeosciences
DO - 10.5194/bg-23-7029-2026
UR - https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/23/7029/2026/
AB - Termites are major detritivores in tropical and subtropical ecosystems, yet their contributions to the terrestrial carbon cycle remain absent from process-based soil organic carbon (SOC) models. Here, we present a termite carbon module that explicitly represents termite-mediated litter consumption and transfer of ingested carbon into gaseous (CO ₂ , CH ₄ ) and SOC pools. The module integrates biome-specific termite biomass with spatially explicit productivity inputs to quantify termite-driven carbon fluxes within a mass-balance framework. Model simulations show that termites act as spatially heterogeneous carbon processors, accelerating litter turnover while modifying the pathways through which carbon is redistributed between atmospheric and SOC pools. Global sensitivity analysis identifies termite biomass and ingestion capacity as the dominant controls on flux magnitude, whereas carbon partitioning governs the fate of processed carbon. Including termite-mediated pathways in SOC models provides a mechanism for representing faunal controls on decomposition, soil carbon formation, and trace gas emissions, particularly in tropical and seasonally dry ecosystems. Globally, we estimate termites process 1569.4±800.4 Tg C yr ⁻¹ , releasing 864.7±444.5 Tg C yr ⁻¹ as CO ₂ and 7.9±4.9 Tg C yr ⁻¹ as CH ₄ , while transferring 689.3±367.4 Tg C yr ⁻¹ into labile and mineral-associated SOC. Explicit representation of termite-driven carbon fluxes will therefore be important for improving predictions of litter decomposition, SOC formation, and terrestrial carbon-climate feedbacks.
SN - 1726-4189
ER -