The contribution of penguin guano to the Southern Ocean iron pool

Oleg Belyaev (), Erica Sparaventi, Gabriel Navarro, Araceli Rodríguez-Romero and Antonio Tovar-Sánchez
Additional contact information
Oleg Belyaev: Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Erica Sparaventi: Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Gabriel Navarro: Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Araceli Rodríguez-Romero: University of Cádiz
Antonio Tovar-Sánchez: Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Iron plays a crucial role in the high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll Southern Ocean regions, promoting phytoplankton growth and enhancing atmospheric carbon sequestration. In this area, iron-rich Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and baleen whale species, which are among their main predators, play a large role in the recycling of iron. However, penguins have received limited attention despite their representing the largest seabird biomass in the southern polar region. Here, we use breeding site guano volumes estimated from drone images, deep learning-powered penguin census, and guano chemical composition to assess the iron export to the Antarctic waters from one of the most abundant penguin species, the Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus). Our results show that these seabirds are a relevant contributor to the iron remobilization pool in the Southern Ocean. With an average guano concentration of 3 mg iron g−1, we estimate that the Chinstrap penguin population is recycling 521 tonnes iron yr−1, representing the current iron contribution half of the amount these penguins were able to recycle four decades ago, as they have declined by more than 50% since then.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37132-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37132-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37132-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().