Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 2 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. hannah.griffiths@liverpool.ac.uk
  • 3 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  • 4 School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  • 5 Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
  • 6 School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
  • 7 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Science, 2019 01 11;363(6423):174-177.
PMID: 30630931 DOI: 10.1126/science.aau9565

Abstract

Termites perform key ecological functions in tropical ecosystems, are strongly affected by variation in rainfall, and respond negatively to habitat disturbance. However, it is not known how the projected increase in frequency and severity of droughts in tropical rainforests will alter termite communities and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Using a large-scale termite suppression experiment, we found that termite activity and abundance increased during drought in a Bornean forest. This increase resulted in accelerated litter decomposition, elevated soil moisture, greater soil nutrient heterogeneity, and higher seedling survival rates during the extreme El Niño drought of 2015-2016. Our work shows how an invertebrate group enhances ecosystem resistance to drought, providing evidence that the dual stressors of climate change and anthropogenic shifts in biotic communities will have various negative consequences for the maintenance of rainforest ecosystems.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.