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Data from: Biogeographical variation in termite distributions alters global deadwood decay

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Sep 07, 2024 version files 187.57 KB

Abstract

Fungus-growing termites (subfamily Macrotermitinae) have a distinct geographical distribution, found only in the old-world tropics. Where present, they are considered to be major contributors and regulators of decomposition, with consumption rates often greater than other termite groups. This study sought to understand the relative roles of termite distribution (specifically the presence or absence of fungus-growing termites) and climatic variables (mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and mean annual aridity) on global patterns in deadwood decay. To answer this question, we added new salient data to an existing dataset on global wood decay by Zanne et al. (2022) available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19920416.v1. We filtered the data to only include sites where termites were present and thus analysed a dataset containing 102 sites across 16 countries. We found that termite-driven decay of deadwood increased with aridity but was higher in sites with fungus-growing termites than sites without fungus-growing termites. Our results also showed that the relative role of fungus-growing termites increased with aridity, as rates of wood-discovery by termites increased with aridity but only in sites where fungus-growing termites were present. Our findings indicate that the inclusion of biogeographical differences in termite distribution could potentially alter global estimates of deadwood turnover. This repository contains new datasets on termite-driven deadwood decay of Pinus radiata wood blocks and code used for all data analyses and production of figures.