In a review article published in Nature, researchers have introduced a new term to describe the importance of seabirds across land and marine ecosystems: the circular seabird economy. Although seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, they return to land to breed, often forming colonies of thousands of individuals. This influx of birds, bringing their guano, or droppings, feathers and eggshells to land constitutes a transfer of ocean-derived nutrients, including phosphorous, carbon, nitrogen and calcium. “By eating at sea, and then pooping at breeding colonies, seabirds are estimated to transfer as much nitrogen and phosphorus from sea to land as all commercial fisheries combined,” Nick Holmes, study co-author and associate director for oceans at the NGO The Nature Conservancy, told Mongabay by email. This surge in nutrients on land feeds soil and helps “shape plant communities, which in turn support diverse insect, bird, and reptile populations,” David Will, study co-author and senior director of impact and innovation at U.S.-based nonprofit Island Conservation, told Mongabay by email. “In Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, seabirds contribute over 80% of available nutrients to land and sea ecosystems, making them the primary drivers of productivity in some of the planet’s harshest environments,” Will added. “When new islands emerge from the sea, they are empty until seabirds show up with seeds and nutrients and jump start life and keep it going.” The flow of nutrients doesn’t just go from ocean to land. Studies show that a significant amount washes back the other way, fueling marine food webs as well. Compared to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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