Termites In Forest Ecology
Tropical forest ecosystems are called the carbon sinks of the world for good reason; they are believed to store massive amounts of carbon in them, and that is why their destruction is compounding the environmental problems of the world. One insect that is essential to tropical forest functioning is the humble termite. Termites help tropical forests by recycling the wood in these forests back into the atmosphere.
The amount of wood consumed by termites in tropical forests is immense. Many forest trees die standing and their branches fall to the ground slowly, while the main trunk stands upright for years. These dead trees provide food for many termites. The wood is slowly turned into nitrogen by different species of termites. Some eat the wood direct and digest it in their gullet, while others chew up the wood and bring it back to their nests to farm fungi. In this way, most of the wood that decays in tropical forests are recycled back into the system.