Poison toilet paper reveals how termites help rainforests resist drought

[Judi Lynn]

Forests with more termites show better soil nutrient distribution and leaf litter removal
BY YAO-HUA LAW 2:00PM, JANUARY 10, 2019



FOREST FRIENDS Common, large wood-eating termites, such as the Macrotermes species here, improve leaf decomposition, soil moisture and seedling survival in droughts, a study finds.

YAO HUA LAW

It took hundreds of teabags and thousands of rolls of toilet paper for tropical ecologist Kate Parr and her colleagues to demonstrate that termites help tropical rainforests resist drought. Forests with more termites show more soil moisture, leaf litter decomposition and seedling survival during a drought than forests with fewer termites, the scientists report January 10 in Science.

The study was part of a project by the University of Liverpool and the Natural History Museum in London to examine how ants and termites affect decomposition and consumption of seeds, fruits and carcasses in rainforests of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area in northern Borneo.

Termites play an important role in tropical ecosystems, but “nobody knows exactly how important they are,” says Parr from the University of Liverpool. To isolate the effect of termites from the other soil critters, Parr’s team exploited termites’ cellulose diet.

In 2014, the researchers buried insecticide-soaked rolls of toilet paper as well as tainted teabags in four forest plots, each about the size of five Olympic swimming pools. Toilet rolls are like cotton candy for termites, Parr says, “this really amazing, easy-to-digest food for termites.” The team used poisoned teabags just in case some termites “were fussy and didn’t eat the toilet paper.” Termites died after eating the poisoned baits, while the 14 other most commonly found invertebrate groups, including ants and beetles, were unaffected. None of these other critters nosh on hard-to-digest cellulose.

More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/poison-toilet-paper-teabags-termites-rainforests-drought?tgt=nr

[LakeSuperiorView]

1. Toxic teabags. Sounds about right.

I have to admit that I first read prison toilet paper and was really puzzled.