Soil respiration, which is originated from microbial activity, root respiration and other soil living organisms, is the second largest flow of CO2 in carbon cycling. It’s difficult to elucidate the mechanism and controlling factors of soil respiration because of the complex systems. Previous research showed CO2 emissions from the nests of ants ware higher than those from surrounding areas, suggesting ant nest could be one of the factors that increase the soil respiration dynamics. Since tropic area is characterized by high diversity of ants, nest of ants could be important source of soil respiration. In this study, we aimed to compare to CO2 emissions from ant nests and surrounding soil in tropical forests. We also looked for factors causing the changes in CO2 emissions from the nests.

In Borneo, Malaysia, we measured CO2 emissions from there by soil respiration machine. Environmental factors were also measured.

CO2 emissions from the nests and colonies were higher than those of surrounding soil. We also found that the amount of CO2 emission differed among the genera, which were highly variable. These results suggest that the presence of soil animals may increase dynamics of soil respiration significantly, which are not observed in the other ecosystems.