Otero Xosé Luis, De La Peña-Lastra Saul, Pérez-Alberti Augusto, Ferreira Tiago Osorio, Huerta-Diaz Miguel Angel
Departamento de Edafoloxía e Química Agrícola, Campus Vida, Facultade de Bioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Departamento de Xeografía Física, Facultade de Xeografía e Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2018 Jan 23;9(1):246. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-02446-8.
Seabirds drastically transform the environmental conditions of the sites where they establish their breeding colonies via soil, sediment, and water eutrophication (hereafter termed ornitheutrophication). Here, we report worldwide amounts of total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) excreted by seabirds using an inventory of global seabird populations applied to a bioenergetics model. We estimate these fluxes to be 591 Gg N y and 99 Gg P y, respectively, with the Antarctic and Southern coasts receiving the highest N and P inputs. We show that these inputs are of similar magnitude to others considered in global N and P cycles, with concentrations per unit of surface area in seabird colonies among the highest measured on the Earth's surface. Finally, an important fraction of the total excreted N (72.5 Gg y) and P (21.8 Gg y) can be readily solubilized, increasing their short-term bioavailability in continental and coastal waters located near the seabird colonies.
海鸟通过土壤、沉积物和水体富营养化（以下简称鸟类富营养化），极大地改变了它们建立繁殖群体地点的环境条件。在此，我们利用应用于生物能量学模型的全球海鸟种群清单，报告全球范围内海鸟排泄的总氮（N）和总磷（P）量。我们估计这些通量分别为591 Gg N/年和99 Gg P/年，南极和南部海岸接收的氮和磷输入量最高。我们表明，这些输入量与全球氮和磷循环中考虑的其他输入量规模相似，海鸟繁殖群体单位表面积的浓度是地球表面测量到的最高浓度之一。最后，排泄的总氮（72.5 Gg/年）和总磷（21.8 Gg/年）中有很大一部分可以很容易地溶解，从而增加了它们在海鸟繁殖群体附近的大陆和沿海水体中的短期生物可利用性。
