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科学美国人60秒 SSS Elephant Footprints Become Tiny Critter Havens

时间：2017-03-06 03:23:07

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（单词翻译）

 

Imagine a world without elephants. Not only would we have lost one of the planet’s most charismatic, extraordinary creatures. Also gone would be a network of ecosystem1 engineers—because elephants are crucial for other creatures to exist.

They disperse2 seeds in their copious3 droppings. By literally4 cutting paths through forests as they trample5 trees and bushes, they create a more complex landscape. And now we know that their very footprints are important.  

"We were walking through the forest in Kibale National Park…and that's when we stumbled upon these water-filled elephant footprints.”

University of Koblenz–Landau ecologist Wolfram Remmers.

“And we looked at them and we quickly noticed that they were not only filled by water, but there were lots of animals living in them."

Remmers and his colleagues discovered that elephant footprints are a critical habitat for aquatic6 invertebrates7 like water beetles8. The team studied 30 footprints in different parts of the national park in Uganda to see just who calls this unique habitat their home. In all, they found 61 species from 27 taxonomic orders.

The researchers then created 18 artificial footprints to see how fast they would be colonized10. Water beetles showed up on day one. After five days, 410 individual invertebrates were occupying the prints. The findings are in the African Journal of Ecology. [Wolfram Remmers et al., Elephant (Loxodonta africana) footprints as habitat for aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in Kibale National Park, south-west Uganda.]

"If you think of these footprints as tiny islands in a big forest, it was amazing to me to see how quickly these small animals could find them and colonize9 them and use them as habitat for foraging11 and reproduction and living."

In some places, elephant footprints are the only stagnant12 ponds to be found, which could mean that these insects depend on the pachyderms for their very survival. But because this discovery is so new, nobody really knows how critical these habitats are.

"We are not sure how much they are really dependent on elephant-made footprints in other areas, or if they would completely disappear or if they would just be there in a lower number."

Without additional protections, elephants will undoubtedly13 disappear from large swaths of their ranges. Which means a huge community of invertebrates might be severely14 restricted in their ability to move across the landscape—with ecosystem consequences we can only guess at.

—Jason G. Goldman


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1 ecosystem Wq4xz     
n.生态系统
参考例句：
  • This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
  • We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。
2 disperse ulxzL     
vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散
参考例句：
  • The cattle were swinging their tails to disperse the flies.那些牛甩动着尾巴驱赶苍蝇。
  • The children disperse for the holidays.孩子们放假了。
3 copious koizs     
adj.丰富的，大量的
参考例句：
  • She supports her theory with copious evidences.她以大量的例证来充实自己的理论。
  • Every star is a copious source of neutrinos.每颗恒星都是丰富的中微子源。
4 literally 28Wzv     
adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实
参考例句：
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
5 trample 9Jmz0     
vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯
参考例句：
  • Don't trample on the grass. 勿踏草地。
  • Don't trample on the flowers when you play in the garden. 在花园里玩耍时,不要踩坏花。
6 aquatic mvXzk     
adj.水生的，水栖的
参考例句：
  • Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
  • We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。
7 invertebrates 7e45dc289993d00de9b9f14a70e51319     
n.无脊椎动物( invertebrate的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Insects and worms are all invertebrates. 昆虫和蠕虫都是无脊椎动物。 来自辞典例句
  • In the earthworm and many other invertebrates, these excretory structures are called nephridia. 在蚯蚓和许多其它无脊椎动物中，这些排泄结构称为肾管。 来自辞典例句
8 beetles e572d93f9d42d4fe5aa8171c39c86a16     
n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
9 colonize mqzzM     
v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于
参考例句：
  • Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
  • Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。
10 colonized b6d32edf2605d89b4eba608acb0d30bf     
开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
  • The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。
11 foraging 6101d89c0b474e01becb6651ecd4f87f     
v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）
参考例句：
  • They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句
12 stagnant iGgzj     
adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的
参考例句：
  • Due to low investment,industrial output has remained stagnant.由于投资少，工业生产一直停滞不前。
  • Their national economy is stagnant.他们的国家经济停滞不前。
13 undoubtedly Mfjz6l     
adv.确实地，无疑地
参考例句：
  • It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
  • He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。
14 severely SiCzmk     
adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地
参考例句：
  • He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
  • He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

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