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Do Penguins Control the Weather?
Do Penguins Control the Weather?
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0:00
It sure would be nice to control the weather.
0:02
You could guarantee you’d always have a sunny day for a picnic,
0:05
or call down some rain if your garden’s looking a little dry.
0:08
But we humans cannot do that.
0:11
Because we are not penguins.
0:14
Whether Antarctica gets nice sunny days or overcast skies
0:18
might have a lot to do with its best-dressed residents.
0:21
Here is how penguins, and I am not joking, might control the weather.
0:27
[♪ INTRO]
0:30
Penguin colonies in Antarctica can get pretty darn big.
0:33
Many have tens or even hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs.
0:37
And with a lot of penguins comes a lot of penguin poop.
0:40
All of that poop gives off a gas called ammonia.
0:43
You might know of it as an ingredient in plant fertilizer.
0:46
Or things you can use to clean your bathroom.
0:48
Or pee!
0:49
In fact, seabird poop is such a rich source of ammonia that back in the 19th century,
0:55
people were mining entire islands for buildups of bird poop to bolster their crops.
1:01
Not exactly a glamorous job.
1:03
But in places like Antarctica, where no one’s going in and messing with penguin droppings,
1:08
the ammonia gets into the atmosphere.
1:11
There, it can link up with other chemicals in the air and help form the earliest seeds of clouds.
1:17
Clouds are mostly made of droplets of liquid water.
1:20
In order for clouds to form, the gaseous water vapor in the
1:24
atmosphere needs something to condense onto in order to become those droplets.
1:29
That something could be a bit of dust, or some soot from a fire.
1:33
But it could also come from natural chemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere.
1:37
Sometimes, when different gases get together,
1:39
they can link up and form a tiny solid or liquid particle.
1:43
At first, those little particles aren’t big enough to start forming clouds on their own.
1:47
But over time, they can grow into bigger particles.
1:50
They don’t even have to get all that big.
1:53
Once the particles get to be a few dozen nanometers in diameter,
1:57
they become cloud condensation nuclei.
2:00
Those are particles big enough for water vapor to start condensing on them.
2:03
Just for context, the particles only need to be
2:06
about a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.
2:10
Why do we always use width of a human hair as the comparison?
2:13
I feel like there’s got to be something else!
2:15
In Antarctica, many of the particles that go on to become cloud condensation
2:19
nuclei are thought to start as clusters containing sulfuric acid and ammonia.
2:24
They can also contain chemicals called amines, which are related to ammonia, among others.
2:29
The sulfuric acid mainly comes from microorganisms in the ocean.
2:33
Phytoplankton emit something called dimethyl sulfide, which reacts to become sulfuric acid.
2:39
And the ammonia comes, in large part, from penguin poop.
2:43
Normally, there would be other compounds in
2:45
the atmosphere forming these tiny starter particles too.
2:48
They might be things like decaying plant matter or industrial emissions.
2:52
But there really isn’t much of that in Antarctica.
2:55
It is the world’s largest desert, after all.
2:57
So ammonia from penguin guano, or penguin poop, ends up playing a big role in cloud formation.
3:03
Now, we’ve known about this for a while.
3:05
Studies have linked this particle formation to ammonia from penguin colonies since 1998.
3:10
And more recent research has presented an idea for exactly how those particles form.
3:16
But as it turns out, these poop-based specks could impact cloud cover over
3:21
much of Antarctica, and maybe help keep the entire continent cool.
3:25
Before we talk about why, all science needs funding, so let’s go to a quick break.
3:30
Thanks to JMP Statistical Discovery for supporting this SciShow video!
3:34
If you’ve ever had trouble finding the interesting results in a huge dataset, you’re not alone.
3:38
It can be really hard to see the forest for the trees.
3:41
That is why JMP exists.
3:43
JMP helps scientists turn messy,
3:46
complex data into something they can visually explore and understand.
3:50
JMP makes the jumble of numbers meaningful by making patterns,
3:54
relationships, and outliers visible in seconds.
3:57
But it’s still you working with the data.
4:00
You can build these skills yourself with JMP’s free, on-demand workshop.
4:04
Download the free trial and sample dataset and start your journey into
4:08
data visualisation and exploratory analysis.
4:11
You don’t need to be an expert statistician to get started.
4:14
It’s designed for scientists, engineers, and curious learners alike.
4:18
You can check out the free workshop in the link in the description.
4:22
In a 2025 study, a team of researchers set up equipment to monitor ammonia
4:27
levels at an Antarctic research station near two penguin colonies.
4:31
They found that airborne ammonia concentrations
4:33
were higher when the wind blew in from the direction of the penguin colonies.
4:37
And they only saw new particles forming when the wind came from that direction, too.
4:42
Along with ammonia, the team also spotted a chemical called dimethylamine.
4:47
Even a little bit of dimethylamine can help
4:49
speed up the formation of those ammonia-sulfuric acid particles.
4:54
And good thing for the scientists there wasn’t a lot.
4:56
Because dimethylamine smells like rotting fish.
4:59
Yummy...
5:00
The scientists weren’t able to confirm the source of the dimethylamine.
5:04
But much like with the ammonia,
5:05
they saw more dimethylamine when winds came from the direction of the penguins.
5:10
That’s not entirely surprising.
5:12
Penguin guano can produce amines,
5:14
so it makes sense that the dimethylamine could have come from penguin poop just like ammonia.
5:20
So lots of penguin poop means lots of these little particles that can contribute to cloud formation.
5:26
That was true even after the penguins left the colony site on their annual migration.
5:30
Ammonia levels stayed high for more than a month after the penguins took off.
5:36
But not literally took off...because they don't fly.
5:38
A separate study from 2024 also suggests that ammonia levels in the air from penguin guano
5:44
could spike when temperatures fluctuate above and below freezing over the course of the day.
5:49
Ammonia itself doesn’t last very long once it’s in the atmosphere.
5:52
But those particles it makes with sulfuric acid do.
5:56
The particles could end up getting blown elsewhere on the continent.
5:59
So penguin poop could affect cloud cover far from their homes.
6:03
Extra cloud cover could help keep Antarctica cool in the face of climate disaster,
6:08
but we need more research to figure out exactly how that will play out.
6:12
Clouds reflect some of the light and heat from the sun back out into space,
6:17
which could help keep temperatures low.
6:19
On the other hand, clouds also lock in some of the heat that
6:22
makes it through and prevent it from escaping the atmosphere.
6:25
To make things even more complicated,
6:27
climate disaster is already causing some penguin populations to shrink.
6:31
Fewer penguins means less penguin poop, which could then mean fewer clouds.
6:36
Even though we don’t understand their effects yet,
6:38
this is a strong argument for protecting penguin populations.
6:42
They might protect a whole continent in turn!
6:45
So it looks like to really understand and manage climate change in Antarctica,
6:49
we’ll need some help from these funny little guys in suits who like to tap dance and also surf.
6:55
[♪ OUTRO]
