Penguin Poop Helps Drive Cloud Formation Over Antarctica, According to a New Study
The ammonia from Adélie penguin guano reacts with sulfur-containing gases in the atmosphere to aid in forming clouds, which scientists say may be significant to regulating the climate
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Penguin poop, also known as guano, is notoriously smelly. But the ammonia in the birds’ excrement does more than just stink—it can play a role in cloud formation over Antarctica.
Those clouds affect climate systems, and they could potentially reduce the impacts of climate change by regulating surface temperatures, according to a new paper, though the exact consequences of these clouds aren’t fully known.
Adélie penguins eat lots of fish and krill, so their guano contains nitrogen that breaks down into ammonia gas. That ammonia then reacts with other gases in the atmosphere that contain sulfur, creating aerosol particles, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. In turn, those aerosol particles provide a surface for water vapor to condense upon and form clouds.
“There are connections between things that happen on our natural planet that we just don’t necessarily expect,” says lead author Matthew Boyer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki in Finland, to Kasha Patel at the Washington Post. “And this is one of them.”
Boyer and his colleagues measured the concentrations of ammonia and other gases in the air roughly five miles away from a colony of 60,000 Adélie penguins in Antarctica. They set up their instruments near Marambio Base, a research station on the Antarctic Peninsula, and took measurements between January 10 and March 20, 2023. When the wind blew from the direction of the colony, ammonia concentrations skyrocketed as high as 13.5 parts per billion—1,000 times higher than the baseline value measured by the instruments. Those concentrations remained elevated even after the penguins migrated to other areas, leaving their guano behind.
The scientists also observed fog in the hours after ammonia concentrations spiked. That fog was likely a result of the increase in aerosol particle concentration, according to a statement from the journal.
Scientists already knew that ammonia influenced cloud formation over Antarctica, but the new work specifically tested the connection to penguin poop. According to the study, the guano’s byproducts accelerated the formation of clouds by 10,000 times.
The scientists didn’t measure the clouds’ effect on the climate, and they say further research is needed to determine exactly how much the penguin-driven cloud cover is impacting temperatures. But if those clouds behave like most others around the planet, they could insulate the surface from sunlight and have a cooling effect.
“Clouds influence the surface radiation budget, which affects surface temperature. Therefore, clouds impact climate change,” Boyer explains to Laura Baisas at Popular Science. “This is true across the entire planet, not just in Antarctica.”
If the clouds form over ocean, they’re likely to cool the surface. However, clouds above glaciers and ice sheets might have the opposite effect: Antarctica’s ice is so reflective that the clouds there could actually trap that reflected heat, warming the ground instead. “The overall effect hinges on where the clouds form and drift,” write Issam Ahmed and Charlotte Causit for the Agence France-Presse.
Ken Carslaw, an atmospheric scientist at University of Leeds in England who was not involved in the work, tells the Washington Post it’s unlikely the clouds linked to the penguins would affect climate change. But they do show a key natural process, he adds. “It’s vital to understand these natural environments are the baseline from which we quantify and understand human effects on climate,” Carslaw tells the Post. “These observations are another piece of the puzzle that will help to improve how clouds are represented in climate models.”
But if the clouds formed by birds’ guano do offset warming—as a study from 2016 suggests—the researchers hypothesize that drops in penguin populations could influence Antarctica’s climate. Some populations of Adélie penguins have seen dramatic declines in recent years, so the scientists want to understand the role they—and their poop—can play in regulating the local climate.
“If this paper is correct—and it really seems to be a nice piece of work to me—[there’s going to be] a feedback effect, where it’s going to accelerate the changes that are already pushing change in the penguins,” Peter Roopnarine, curator of geology at the California Academy of Sciences, tells Grist’s Matt Simon.
Scientists could study and protect other bird colonies that might be playing a role in the formation of clouds, he adds to Grist, as a natural strategy to offset warming. “We think it’s for the sake of the birds,” Roopnarine says. “Well, obviously it goes well beyond that.”
