Seminar: Hella van Asperen

Termites are insects that are highly abundant in tropical ecosystems. It is known that termites emit CH₄, an important greenhouse gas, but their absolute emission remains uncertain. In the Amazon rainforest, we measured CH₄ emissions from termite nests and groups of termites, and determined a new termite emission factor for the Amazon rainforest. In addition, by a simple up scaling approach, we hypothesize that termites play a significant role in the Terra Firme ecosystem CH4 budget. In this presentation, a short outline will be given on the previous work on termite CH4 emissions. In addition, an overview will be given on the current running projects, and some very new results will be presented.