How life in Antarctica feeds on penguin poo

WASHINGTON: For more than half a century, Antarctic biologists have focused their research on understanding how organisms deal with the severe drought and the coldest weather conditions on the planet.

One thing they have not really considered is the role played by nitrogen-rich dung from colonies of pretty penguins and seals, so far.

A new study published in the journal Current Biology on Thursday found that thriving communities of mosses and lichens supported the excrement of influences, which in turn kept a large number of microscopic animals as Collembola and mites over 1,000 meters beyond the colony.

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"What we see is that the poo produced by seals and penguins evaporates in part in the form of ammonia," said Stef Bokhorst, co-author of the Department of Ecological Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

"Then ammonia is captured by the wind and transported inland, which enters the soil and provides the nitrogen that primary producers need to survive in this landscape."

Braving bitter temperatures, researchers traveled through fields of animal waste – not to mention the hordes of elephant seals and gentoo penguins, chinrests and Adélie – to analyze the surrounding soils and plants at the same time. # 39; s using infrared gas analyzers measuring their breathing.

The samples reported and examined in the laboratory revealed that there were millions of invertebrates per square meter because of the lack of predators in their environment – unlike the European or American grasslands, where their number usually varies between 50,000 and 100,000.

"The more animals we have, the bigger the footprint and we see more diversity in these sites," said Bokhorst. AFP, pointing out that the species' richness was less related to the coldness or drought of the region than to the amount of nutrients added by the excrement.

In the end, the research allowed the team to map the hotspots of the Antarctic Peninsula, discovering that penguin colonies were an indicator of biodiversity.

Maps can be updated in the future using satellite images to determine the size and location of breeding colonies, freeing future scientists from the need for dangerous field work.

Antarctica presented in Bokhorst an "ideal natural laboratory" to study the relationship between nutrients and biodiversity because of the simplicity of the global food web, unlike in other parts of the world where ecosystems were much more complex.

"It's much easier to find driving factors," said Bokhorst.
However, the study also showed how interconnected the ecosystem of the continent is – and therefore its vulnerability to human activities.

All countries working on the continent are subject to the Antarctic Treaty system, which requires them to protect their wildlife, but Bokhorst said the study showed "if you start stinging at one end, it will have an effect on the other. "

"You have to be careful not to overexploit the oceans so as not to interfere with food supplies, otherwise you will have an impact on biodiversity," he said.

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The dynamic invertebrate communities of the peninsula have few predators, but the advent of tourism means that people are more likely to bring seeds or even insects.

These, in turn, could benefit from soil enrichment and establish, threatening native species.

"This is a very good argument to justify caution with Antarctica," said Bokhorst.

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