The amazing relationship between the penguin tube and the formation of the cloud

Scientists have discovered a song from clouds on Antarctica: Penguin Tube.

According to a new study published in Earth and environment communicationsAmmonia gas emitted from the air -free birds, a series of chemical reactions that cause clouds. These clouds may change local temperatures in the Antarctic – and possibly the global climate.

At the Marmio base on the Antarctica Peninsula, the researchers, led by Matthew Bouer – a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki in Finland – concentrated ammonia from a colony of 60,000 from the Penguin from January to March 2023.

When the wind exploded from the colonial direction, the levels of ammonia rose, sometimes up to 1000 times above normal levels. In February, Penguins left the area to continue its annual emigration, but the guns they left behind kept the levels of ammonia up to 100 times from the usual for more than a month.

Since the pencils mainly eat fish and caramel, their stools are full of nitrogen waste that is ultimately divided into ammonia. This chemical compound rises in the air like gas, then mixes with sulfur gas produced by marine microorganisms, such as vegetarian plankton. This reaction creates molecules of atmosphere, which then joins water drops to form clouds.

Previous studies Like This serial reaction before, but Bouer and his colleagues have seen the clouds in the actual time. In February 2023, they measured a powerful explosion of Guano, and then took samples of fog that formed a few hours later. This emphasized that the fog contains molecules created by the interaction between ammonia from Qanu and sulfuric acid from plankton.

“There is a profound relationship between these ecological system operations, between penguins and vegetarians on the surface of the ocean,” Bouer He said The bar. “Their gas interacts all to form these particles and clouds.”

There are about 20 million birds of birds living in Antarctica, according to British Antarctic Survey. This strong population produces a lot of tube, and therefore a lot of clouds. Computer models have Find These clouds reflect sunlight, which leads to a large ground cooling.

Bouer and his colleagues mention that more research is needed to understand the impact of clouds on local temperatures completely. But if they have a cooling effect, they point out that the decrease in the population of the penguin can exacerbate the warming in Antarctica during the summer.

The authors say: “It is already understood that the widespread loss of the range of marine ice threatens habitats, food sources, and the behavior of raising most of the types of penguins that live in Antarctica,” says the authors. Thus, some penguins in Antarctica are already decreasing, and almost some species may become extinct by the end of the twenty -first century. “

Of the 18th penguin type in the world, 11 globally threatened, according to Birdlife International. However, the Edili Penguins that Bouer studied is one of the few types whose population in Antarctica has an increase in numbers.

But if these stool clouds are less reflected than the ice under it, it may describe heat near the surface of the earth and cause high temperatures. Washington Post. Getting down these effects is important because local changes in Antarctica and the Northern Pole can affect the entire world, especially in terms of sea level rise.

“The oceans and penguins affect the atmosphere and actually affect the local climate in Antarctica,” says Boer to the Washington Post. “Local changes in Antarctica will have an impact on the global climate.”