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Termites as a factor of spatial differentiation of CO2 fluxes from the soils of monsoon tropical forests in southern Vietnam

  • Soil Biology
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Abstract

Annual dynamics of CO2 fluxes from soils and the impact of the living activity of termites on them were studied in plain lagerstroemia semideciduous monsoon tropical forests of southern Vietnam. On the plot populated by Globitermes sulphureus and Odontotermes termites, a detailed study of the spatial heterogeneity of the CO2 emission from the surface of soil and termite mounds was performed in the wet and dry seasons. It was found that the average rate of the CO2 emission from termite mounds was two times and more higher than that from the background soil surface. In the dry season, it comprised 91 ± 7 mg C/m2 per h from the background soil and 196 ± 16 mg C/m2 per h from the termite mounds. In the wet season, the CO2 emission rate was considerably higher and reached 266 ± 40 and 520 ± 39 mg C/m2 per h, respectively. The maximum rates of CO2 fluxes were determined in the wet season in some of the measurement chambers installed on termite mounds; they reached 730–880 mg C/m2 per h. Though termite mounds occupy about 4% of the area of tropical forest ecosystems, the overall effect of termites on the carbon budget was more significant; according to our estimates, it reached up to 10% of the total efflux of CO2 from the soil surface.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Institutskaya 2, Pushchino, Moscow oblast, 142290, Russia

    V. O. Lopes de Gerenyu, V. K. Avilov & I. N. Kurganova

  2. Joint Vietnamese-Russian Tropical Research and Technological Center, Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    A. E. Anichkin & A. N. Kuznetsov

  3. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    A. E. Anichkin & A. N. Kuznetsov

Authors
  1. V. O. Lopes de Gerenyu
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  2. A. E. Anichkin
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  3. V. K. Avilov
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  4. A. N. Kuznetsov
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  5. I. N. Kurganova
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Correspondence to V. O. Lopes de Gerenyu.

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Original Russian Text © V.O. Lopes de Gerenyu, A.E. Anichkin, V.K. Avilov, A.N. Kuznetsov, I.N. Kurganova, 2015, published in Pochvovedenie, 2015, No. 2, pp. 228–238.

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Lopes de Gerenyu, V.O., Anichkin, A.E., Avilov, V.K. et al. Termites as a factor of spatial differentiation of CO2 fluxes from the soils of monsoon tropical forests in southern Vietnam. Eurasian Soil Sc. 48, 208–217 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229315020088

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229315020088

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