Need for shared internal mound conditions by fungus-growing Macrotermes does not predict their species distributions, in current or future climates

dc.contributor.authorSeymour, Colleen L.
dc.contributor.authorKorb, Judith
dc.contributor.authorJoseph, Grant S.
dc.contributor.authorHassall, Richard
dc.contributor.authorCoetzee, Bernard Walter Thomas
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-05T07:43:09Z
dc.date.available2024-02-05T07:43:09Z
dc.date.issued2023-08
dc.descriptionDATA ACCESSIBILITY : All data are provided in the electronic supplementary material [93].en_US
dc.description.abstractThe large, iconic nests constructed by social species are engineered to create internal conditions buffered from external climatic extremes, to allow reproduction and/or food production. Nest-inhabiting eusocial Macrotermitinae (Blattodea: Isoptera) are outstanding palaeo-tropical ecosystem engineers that evolved fungus-growing to break down plant matter ca 62 Mya; the termites feed on the fungus and plant matter. Fungus-growing ensures a constant food supply, but the fungi need temperature-buffered, high humidity conditions, created in architecturally complex, often tall, nest-structures (mounds). Given the need for constant and similar internal nest conditions by fungi farmed by different Macrotermes species, we assessed whether current distributions of six African Macrotermes correlate with similar variables, and whether this would reflect in expected species' distribution shifts with climate change. The primary variables explaining species’ distributions were not the same for the different species. Distributionally, three of the six species are predicted to see declines in highly suitable climate. For two species, range increases should be small (less than 9%), and for a single species, M. vitrialatus, ‘very suitable’ climate could increase by 64%. Mismatches in vegetation requirements and anthropogenic habitat transformation may preclude range expansion, however, presaging disruption to ecosystem patterns and processes that will cascade through systems at both landscape and continental scales.en_US
dc.description.departmentZoology and Entomologyen_US
dc.description.librarianhj2024en_US
dc.description.sdgSDG-15:Life on landen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe National Research Foundation of South Africa, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant.en_US
dc.description.urihttp://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.orgen_US
dc.identifier.citationSeymour Colleen L., Korb Judith, Joseph Grant S., Hassall Richard and Coetzee Bernard W.T. 2023 Need for shared internal mound conditions by fungus-growing Macrotermes does not predict their species distributions, in current or future climates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, vol. 378, no. 1884, art. 20220152. http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0152.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0962-8436 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1471-2970 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1098/rstb.2022.0152
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/94269
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherRoyal Societyen_US
dc.rights© 2023 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.en_US
dc.subjectAfrican termitesen_US
dc.subjectClimate change projectionsen_US
dc.subjectTermitomyces fungus-culturingen_US
dc.subjectFungus farmingen_US
dc.subjectSpecies distribution modelsen_US
dc.subjectObligate symbiotic relationship limits on speciesen_US
dc.subjectSDG-15: Life on landen_US
dc.titleNeed for shared internal mound conditions by fungus-growing Macrotermes does not predict their species distributions, in current or future climatesen_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

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