The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, is based on measurements of ammonia levels made over a period of just over three months at a penguin colony near Marambio research station in Antarctica.
The ammonia is released from penguin guano, which is dried waste from, among other things, colonial breeding birds.
Increased by 1,000 percent
During the study, the researchers found that when the wind blew from the penguin colony, the ammonia concentration increased by up to 1,000 percent higher than the baseline value. Even after the penguins left the area, the concentration of ammonia was still 100 percent higher than the baseline value, as the guano left behind at the colony continued to release the gas.
I thought the ammonia would decrease more quickly when the penguins left the site, says Matthew Boyer, a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki and one of the researchers behind the study.
The winds from the penguin colony also showed that the high levels of ammonia play a significant role in enhancing the formation of aerosol particles, which in turn contribute to cloud formation, says Matthew Boyer.
"Can affect"
Clouds function as an insulating layer in the atmosphere and can thus lower the surface temperature of the oceans and potentially reduce the local effects of climate change.
When you have a faster particle formation rate, it means that the source is stronger and more particles are formed, and when the particles grow, it can in turn affect the formation of clouds, says Boyer.
