Poopy seabirds help spread the world’s nutrients around
Seabirds are full of crap — which turns out to be an important source of nutrients in coastal areas, new research says.
Bird poop, also known as guano, is chock-full of key plant foods like nitrogen and phosphorus — and when seabirds flock together to breed, they can produce massive quantities of the stuff. Every year, more than 1.3 billion pounds of nitrogen (591 million kilograms) and 218 million pounds of phosphorus (99 million kilograms) dribble out of this deluge of droppings, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
Knowing exactly how much of these nutrients seabirds pump out can help scientists predict what might change in the environment if the birds were to die out. Plus, there’s an…
