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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2844</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Ideas and perspectives: Beyond Microbes: Integrating Termites into Global Soil Carbon Cycling Models</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Farooq</surname>
<given-names>Umar</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pasut</surname>
<given-names>Chiara</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Ying-Ping</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4614-6203</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zanne</surname>
<given-names>Amy E.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Flores-Moreno</surname>
<given-names>Habacuc</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wijas</surname>
<given-names>Baptiste Joseph</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7895-083X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Forrester</surname>
<given-names>David I.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>England</surname>
<given-names>Jacqueline R.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Macdonald</surname>
<given-names>Bennett</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Brown</surname>
<given-names>Zachary A.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6250-5715</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Karunaratne</surname>
<given-names>Senani</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Waite Campus, South Australia, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>CSIRO Environment, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Dutton Park, Queensland, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>School of Environment, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>CSIRO Environment, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>01</day>
<month>06</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>25</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Umar Farooq et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2844/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2844/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2844/egusphere-2026-2844.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2844/egusphere-2026-2844.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Termites are major detritivores in tropical and subtropical ecosystems, yet their contributions to the terrestrial carbon cycle remains absent from process-based soil organic carbon (SOC) models. Here, we present a termite carbon module that explicitly represents termite-mediated litter consumption and transfer of ingested carbon into gaseous (CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) and SOC pools. The module integrates biome-specific termite biomass with spatially explicit productivity inputs to quantify termite-driven carbon fluxes within a mass-balance framework. Model simulations show that termites act as spatially heterogeneous carbon processors, accelerating litter turnover while modifying the pathways through which carbon is redistributed between atmospheric and SOC pools. Global sensitivity analysis identifies termite biomass and ingestion capacity as the dominant controls on flux magnitude, whereas carbon partitioning governs the fate of processed carbon. Including termite-mediated pathways in SOC models provides a mechanism for representing faunal controls on decomposition, soil carbon formation, and trace gas emissions, particularly in tropical and seasonally dry ecosystems. Globally, we estimate termites process 1569.4 &amp;plusmn; 800.4 Tg C yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, releasing 864.7 &amp;plusmn; 444.5 Tg C yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; as CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and 7.9 &amp;plusmn; 4.9 Tg C yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; as CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, while transferring 689.3 &amp;plusmn; 367.4 Tg C yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; into labile and mineral-associated SOC. Explicit representation of termite-driven carbon fluxes will therefore be important for improving predictions of litter decomposition, SOC formation, and terrestrial carbon-climate feedbacks.</p>
</abstract>
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