Termites are dominant soil macro-fauna in tropical forests, yet remain an uncertain component of the carbon budget in many regions. We investigated CH₄ and CO₂ flux patterns from termite mounds and background soils of moist tropical deciduous forests in Indian lower Himalaya from April 2015 till March 2016 using static closed chamber technique. The relation between gas fluxes and soil moisture as well as temperature were examined. Termite (Odontotermes obesus) mounds were significant localized source of CH₄ (0.38 ± 0.01 mg m⁻² h⁻¹) and CO₂ (1837 ± 40 mg m⁻² h⁻¹) amidst CH₄ consuming (– 0.028 ± 0.001 mg m⁻² h⁻¹) or lower CO₂ emitting (1120 ± 19 mg m⁻² h⁻¹) background forest soils. Gas fluxes from termite mounds were seasonally bimodal (monsoon flux being highest followed by a second mild peak in winter) and diurnally variable. Soil moisture was a significant determinant of CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes from termite mounds, explaining more than 50% variability. In the case of background forest soils, the combined effect of soil moisture and temperature best explained CO₂ and CH₄ flux variation. On scaling up, termite mounds contributed negligibly (0.3%) to total soil CO₂ emission while mound-mediated CH₄ emission offset net soil CH₄ uptake by 2.0%. Our results suggest considerable role of termite mounds in influencing source–sink capacity of forest soils. Present data are crucial in reducing error and uncertainty due to spatiotemporal variations in case of large-scale predictions. We suggest careful future land use decisions to minimize the contribution of mound-building termites to net soil CO₂ and CH₄ flux from this region.

白蚁是热带森林中主要的土壤大型动物，但在许多地区仍是碳预算中不确定的组成部分。我们使用静态密闭室技术调查了2015年4月至2016年3月印度下喜马拉​​雅湿润热带落叶林的白蚁丘和背景土壤的CH ₄和CO ₂通量模式。研究了气体通量与土壤水分以及温度之间的关系。白蚁（黑翅土眼金枪鱼）丘均显著CH的局部源₄（0.38±0.01毫克米^-2  ħ ^-1）和CO ₂（1837±40毫克米^-2  ħ ^-1）之中CH ₄消耗（– 0.028±0.001 mg m ^-2  h ^-1）或更低的CO ₂排放量（1120±19 mg m ^-2  h ^-1）的背景森林土壤。白蚁丘的气体通量是季节性双峰的（季风通量最高，冬季第二个温和峰值），并且昼夜变化。土壤水分是白蚁丘CH ₄和CO ₂通量的重要决定因素，解释了超过50％的变异性。在背景森林土壤的情况下，土壤水分和温度的综合影响可以最好地解释CO ₂和CH _4的通量变化。扩大规模时，白蚁丘对土壤总CO _2的贡献可忽略不计（0.3％）土墩介导的CH ₄排放抵消了土壤中CH _4的吸收量2.0％。我们的结果表明，白蚁土墩在影响森林土壤源－库能力方面发挥着重要作用。在大规模预测的情况下，当前数据对于减少由于时空变化而引起的误差和不确定性至关重要。我们建议未来做出谨慎的土地使用决策，以最大程度地减少筑土白蚁对该地区净土壤CO ₂和CH ₄通量的贡献。