The surprising climate power of penguin poo

Published Thursday in Communications Earth & Environment, the research shows that ammonia wafting off penguin guano seeds extra cloud cover above coastal Antarctica, likely blocking sunlight and nudging temperatures down. Lead author Matthew Boyer, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Helsinki, told AFP that lab studies had long shown gaseous ammonia can help form clouds. But "to actually quantify this process and to see its influence in Antarctica hasn't been done," he said. Antarctica is an ideal natural laboratory.