By Minener.com Staff | May 27, 2025
A new study reveals that penguin droppings might play a surprising role in cooling the Antarctic atmosphere by helping form reflective cloud cover.
As climate change driven by human activity accelerates the warming of Antarctica, researchers have discovered an unexpected natural ally in cooling the continent: penguin feces.
A study published this week in the journal Communications Earth & Environment shows that ammonia released from penguin guano promotes the formation of clouds over Antarctica’s coast. These clouds reflect sunlight, potentially lowering temperatures in the region.
“This process hadn’t been quantified or observed in the Antarctic environment until now,” said Matthew Boyer, the study’s lead author and an atmospheric scientist at the University of Helsinki.
Boyer and his team conducted fieldwork at Argentina’s Marambio Base on Seymour Island, located at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. During the austral summer—when penguin colonies are most active and phytoplankton blooms peak—the researchers monitored wind patterns, ammonia levels, and newly formed clouds.
They found that when winds carried air from a colony of 60,000 Adélie penguins located 8 kilometers away, ammonia concentrations soared to 13.5 parts per trillion—roughly 1,000 times the background level. Remarkably, the soil saturated with guano continued releasing elevated ammonia levels for over a month after the penguins migrated.
The data also showed that air masses arriving from the colony consistently led to increased cloud-forming aerosols. In a continent with little vegetation and virtually no human-made pollution, penguins are the dominant ammonia emitters.
“Penguins release large amounts of ammonia through their excrement,” Boyer explained. “When this mixes with sulfuric gases from phytoplankton—microscopic algae in surrounding oceans—it forms tiny particles that seed clouds.”
The researchers warn that the declining penguin populations, driven in part by melting sea ice, could reduce this cooling effect. “We provide evidence that penguin population decline might trigger a positive feedback loop contributing to summer atmospheric warming in Antarctica,” the authors wrote—though Boyer cautions this remains a hypothesis, not a confirmed result.
Globally, clouds exert a net cooling effect by reflecting solar radiation back into space. Drawing from models developed in the Arctic to study seabird emissions, the team suggests a similar ecological-atmospheric feedback mechanism is likely operating in Antarctica.
“This is another example of the deep connection between ecosystems and atmospheric processes,” Boyer said. “It highlights why biodiversity and conservation should matter to everyone.”
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