Penguin poop helps create and cultivate life in Antarctica, says study

Penguin poop is apparently the secret of biodiversity in Antarctica, according to a new study.

Published Thursday in Current Biology, the study claimed that nitrogen contained in penguin feces and seal elephants had the nutrients needed to cultivate life in a place as cold as ice. Antarctic.

"If you put more poop in the system, Antarctic wildlife is like that," said New York Times researcher Stef Bokhorst, lead author of the study, a polar ecologist from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. .

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Bokhorst and his colleagues – who have been studying Antarctica for more than 15 years – have found that the distance of faecal influence depends more on the number of animals in the colony than on the temperature and humidity of the area.

They also discovered that animal droppings can affect biodiversity up to 1,000 meters.

"What we see is that the poo produced by seals and penguins evaporates in part in the form of ammonia," Bokhorst said in a statement. "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."

Scientists have been able to find mosses, lichen and millions of small invertebrates, such as mites and collembolans, that can develop through animal excrement, the statement said.

"You can find millions per square meter here, but in the grasslands of the United States or Europe, there are only about 50,000 to 100,000 per square meter." said Bokhorst.

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Thanks to their research, Bokhorst and his colleagues have been able to map "biodiversity hotspots" in Antarctica, according to the statement, which also notes that researchers are struggling to study the continent because of its size, desolation and of its cold temperatures.

Researchers are now studying the influence that invasive species could have on the Antarctic and Arctic environment, the statement said, particularly as climate change and human activities are affecting the regions.

"Just as penguin and seal colonies enrich the soil for native plants, it is also possible that they make it ideal for invasive species, which could be more resilient and provide shelter for predatory insects such as spiders and beetles, "said Bokhorst statement. "At the moment, the system is too unproductive to support mammals like rats and mice."