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科学美国人60秒 SSS Forest Die-Offs Alter Global Climate 'Like El Nino'

时间：2017-03-06 05:27:11

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Climate change may be partly to blame for the massive die-off of pine trees in the western U.S. But it works the other way, too: forest die-offs can alter the global climate. 

"I like thinking of this as a parallel to something like El Nino." Abigail Swann, an ecological1 climatologist at the University of Washington. "We think these are also going to have climate impacts far away from where those forests are dying. So it's going to ricochet in other places around the globe."

To model those 'ricochet' effects, Swann and her colleagues used climate simulations to wipe out forests and replace them with grasslands2, in the western US, the Amazon, or both. They found that losing forests in one part of the globe does indeed affect climate very far away. "And that could be negative in a lot of places, it could be bad for the ecosystems3, but you could come up with scenarios4 where it makes the conditions a little bit better." 

For example, killing5 off trees in western North America leads to cooler temps globally. That outcome means lower productivity in Siberian forests—a negative. It also dries up forests in the Carolinas—another negative. But conditions will get wetter in eastern South America—a positive for the forests there. The results are in the journal PLOS ONE. [Elizabeth S. Garcia et al, Synergistic ecoclimate teleconnections from forest loss in 2 different regions structure global ecological responses]

One surprise, though, was that when researchers erased6 forests in both the Amazon and the western U.S.—it had an unpredictable, synergistic effect on global climate. "It suggests that if we were to think about forest management around the globe, we should manage in a coordinated7 manner rather than independent entities8. Because the climate response to these changes in forest cover is going to be a function of all of them happening at the same time." 

We do do that to some extent—like managing tropical deforestation through the U.N. But this study suggests we need to keep it up, and do even better, if we want to see the global forest for the trees.

—Christopher Intagliata

[The above text is a transcript9 of this podcast.]


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1 ecological IrRxX     
adj.生态的，生态学的
参考例句：
  • The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
  • Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.
2 grasslands 72179cad53224d2f605476ff67a1d94c     
n.草原，牧场( grassland的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Songs were heard ringing loud and clear over the grasslands. 草原上扬起清亮激越的歌声。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Grasslands have been broken and planted to wheat. 草原已经开垦出来，种上了小麦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 ecosystems 94cb0e40a815bea1157ac8aab9a5380d     
n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句
4 scenarios f7c7eeee199dc0ef47fe322cc223be88     
n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本
参考例句：
  • Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
5 killing kpBziQ     
n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财
参考例句：
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
6 erased f4adee3fff79c6ddad5b2e45f730006a     
v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除
参考例句：
  • He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 coordinated 72452d15f78aec5878c1559a1fbb5383     
adj.协调的
参考例句：
  • The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
  • The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
8 entities 07214c6750d983a32e0a33da225c4efd     
实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
  • The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。
9 transcript JgpzUp     
n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书
参考例句：
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

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