MAY 9,
2019
For more
than half a century, biologists studying Antarctica focused their research on
understanding how organisms cope with the continent's severe drought and the
coldest conditions on the planet.
One thing
they didn't really factor in, however, was the role played by the nitrogen-rich
droppings from colonies of cute penguins and seals—until now.
A new
study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology found the
influential excrement supported thriving communities of mosses and lichens,
which in turn sustained vast numbers of microscopic animals like springtails
and mites for more than 1,000 meters (yards) beyond the colony.
"What
we see is that the poo produced by seals and penguins partly evaporates as
ammonia," said co-author Stef Bokhorst from the Department of Ecological
Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
"Then,
the ammonia gets picked up by the wind and is blown inland, and this makes its
way into the soil and provides the nitrogen that primary producers need in
order to survive in this landscape."
Braving
bitter temperatures, the researchers waded through fields of animal waste—not
to mention hordes of clamoring elephant seals and gentoo, chinstrap, and Adelie
penguins—to examine the surrounding soils and plants using infrared gas
analyzers that measured their respiration.
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