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科学美国人60秒 SSS Road Noise Makes Birds' Lives Tougher

时间：2017-03-06 02:50:20

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（单词翻译）

 

[Songbird and traffic noise]

It's hard to be a bird in our human-dominated world.

You can barely hear yourself sing, let along hear the songs of your friends… and you can forget about hearing a predator1. Noise is almost everywhere. Especially noise from traffic. A whopping 83 percent of the surface of the continental2 U.S. is within just one kilometer of a road.

Researchers have tried to assess the impact of road noise on animals by, understandably, looking at animals living near noisy roads. The problem is that noisy roads are both noisy, and well, they're roads. It's hard to separate the two.

"And so we figured out a way to have just the noise without any of the other effects of the road, and to do that we ran speakers through a forest where there was no road."

Chris McClure, a biologist at Boise State University and The Peregrine Fund. He and his team built their audio phantom3 road at a popular stopover site for birds in Idaho as they fly south for the winter.

While the noise kept lots of birds away, some stuck around. But they had trouble putting on enough weight to fuel the next leg of their migratory4 journey.

"They have to fatten5 up but they also have to not get eaten by a predator. And those two things are in conflict. Because to eat, they have to look down, which means they aren't looking at predators6."

And when it's too loud, they can't hear the alarm calls of other birds. So they have to waste time looking for predators instead of foraging7. The study is in the journal Animal Conservation. [C.J.W. McClure et al., Noise from a phantom road experiment alters the age structure of a community of migrating birds]

By 2050, it's thought that enough new roads will be built to circle the planet more than 600 times. But there's an easy solution to the noise problem.

"Lowering speed limits does a lot."

So next time you're driving through nature, just slow down a little. It’s safer for you and the wildlife. And you can enjoy the view a little longer.

—Jason G. Goldman


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1 predator 11vza     
n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者
参考例句：
  • The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
  • Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。
2 continental Zazyk     
adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的
参考例句：
  • A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
  • The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。
3 phantom T36zQ     
n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的
参考例句：
  • I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她，好像她是一个幽灵。
  • He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。
4 migratory jwQyB     
n.候鸟，迁移
参考例句：
  • Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
  • This does not negate the idea of migratory aptitude.这并没有否定迁移能力这一概念。
5 fatten ClLxX     
v.使肥，变肥
参考例句：
  • The new feed can fatten the chicken up quickly enough for market.新饲料能使鸡长得更快，以适应市场需求。
  • We keep animals in pens to fatten them.我们把动物关在围栏里把它们养肥。
6 predators 48b965855934a5395e409c1112d94f63     
n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）
参考例句：
  • birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
  • The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 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

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