Ammonia concentrations 20 times higher than those typically measured at chicken farms have been detected by scientists working on seabird colonies. Such large sources of ammonia could be causing a major impact on the local ecology, and may be just as guilty as intensive farming.
Ammonia is a prime source of nitrogen enrichment.
The first meeting of the principal investigators will be on Thursday, 9th March, when they will share information on progress of the various projects that form the initiative. Using a range of techniques they will measure the amount of ammonia produced by different species. The ammonia released from colonies as a whole will be assessed using an inert atmospheric tracer. From there, the next step is to build up a database of global seabird colony distributions, and use this to calculate the total ammonia emissions. The ammonia produced by penguins reacts to form aerosols in the atmosphere.