Warin BoonriamPongthep SuwanwareeSasitorn HasinPhuvasa ChanonmuangTaksin ArchawakomAkinori YamadaMahidol University. Faculty of Environment and Resource StudiesSuranaree University of Technology. Institute of Science. School of BiologyValaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the Royal Patronage. College of Innovative Management. Innovation of Environmental ManagementThailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research. Expert Centre of Innovation Clean Energy and EnvironmentRoyal Forest Department. Sakaerat Environmental Research StationTokyo Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Sciences2021-12-242021-12-242021-12-242021Environment and Natural Resources Journal. Vol. 19, No. 6 (Nov-Dec 2021), 503-513https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/63931Termites are one of the major contributors to high spatial variability in soil respiration. Although epigeal termite mounds are considered as a point of high CO2 effluxes, the patterns of mound CO2 effluxes are different, especially the mound of fungus-growing termites in a tropical forest. This study quantified the effects of a fungus-growing termite (Macrotermes carbonarius) associated with soil CO2 emission by considering their nesting pattern in dry evergreen forest, Thailand. A total of six mounds of M. carbonarius were measured for CO2 efflux rates on their mounds and surrounding soils in dry and wet seasons. Also, measurement points were investigated for the active underground passages at the top 10% of among efflux rates. The mean rate of CO2 emission from termitaria of M. carbonarius was 7.66 µmol CO2/m2/s, consisting of 2.94 and 9.11 µmol CO2/m2/s from their above mound and underground passages (the rate reached up to 50.00 µmol CO2/m2/s), respectively. While the CO2 emission rate from the surrounding soil alone was 6.86 µmol CO2/m2/s. The results showed that the termitaria of M. carbonarius contributed 8.4% to soil respiration at the termitaria scale. The study suggests that fungus-growing termites cause a local and strong variation in soil respiration through underground passages radiating out from the mounds in dry evergreen forest.engMahidol UniversityCO2 effluxMacrotermes carbonariusTermite moundSoil respirationSpatial variationDry evergreen forestEnvironment and Natural Resources Journalวารสารสิ่งแวดล้อมและทรัพยากรธรรมชาติResearch ArticleFaculty of Environment and Resource Studies Mahidol University