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guano

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guano

1. 
a. the dried excrement of fish-eating sea birds, deposited in rocky coastal regions of South America: contains the urates, oxalates, and phosphates of ammonium and calcium; used as a fertilizer
b. the accumulated droppings of bats and seals
2. any similar but artificial substance used as a fertilizer
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

guano

[′gwän·ō]
(materials)
Phosphate- and nitrogen-rich, partially decomposed excrement of seabirds; used as a fertilizer.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Guano

 

the decomposed (in dry climate) droppings of gulls and other sea fowl.

Guano is used as a valuable nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer; it contains about 9 percent nitrogen and 13 percent phosphoric acid, potassium, and calcium. Accumulations of guano are found on islands off the coasts of Chile, Peru, and South Africa as well as on the islands of the Caribbean. Guano is also the name given to the artificially prepared (mainly in Japan and Norway) mineral fertilizers from the waste products of the fishing and seal-hunting industries.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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