在线英语听力室

科学美国人60秒 SSS 北极早春令白颊黑雁加快迁徙速度

时间:2019-09-29 02:42:45

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Annie Sneed.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是安妮·斯尼德。

Every spring, a bird called the barnacle goose migrates from the coast of the North Sea to the Russian Arctic, where it breeds. That's a 3000-kilometer trip. Along the way, the geese usually take pit stops to rest and refuel. But the Arctic spring has been arriving earlier and earlier.

每年春天,一种名为白颊黑雁的鸟会从北海海岸迁徙至俄罗斯北极地区繁衍。这一旅程长达3000公里。白颊黑雁通常会在迁徙途中停下来休息并补充体力。但北极春天到来的越来越早。

So researchers analyzed1 six years of barnacle goose migratory2 tracking data. To try to figure out if these geese—and other species like it—can adapt their migration3, to stay in sync with the changing seasons.

因此,研究人员对白颊黑雁六年来的迁徙追踪数据进行了分析。目的是试图弄清这些黑雁以及其它类似物种是否能适应迁徙,与变化的季节保持一致。

"Then we used satellite images to see when snow was melting in the Arctic, and then we could relate the timing4 of the birds to the snow melt." Bart Nolet, an ecologist at the University of Amsterdam.

“然后我们用卫星图像来观察北极的融雪时间,接下来就可以将白颊黑雁的迁徙时间与融雪时间关联起来。”阿姆斯特丹大学的生态学家巴特·诺莱特说到。

Nolet and his colleagues found that the geese did not leave their wintering grounds sooner to match the earlier Arctic spring. But they did speed up their trip—by skipping many of their usual stopovers. The birds arrived in the Arctic up to 13 days earlier than they used to. But at a cost.

诺莱特和同事发现,白颊黑雁并没有提前离开过冬地以适应北极的早春。但是它们确实缩短了迁徙时间,跳过了许多通常会停留的休息地。白颊黑雁到达北极地区的时间比以前提前了13天。不过这是有代价的。

"So in a normal year, they start laying their eggs right after arrival. But now they spent more than a week foraging5 before they laid their eggs... So in effect, they weren't that much earlier than would have been the case, if they would be able to lay their eggs immediately. As a result, the chicks that hatch from the eggs in that early year, they survive much less than normal. Probably because they missed the food peak, which is a combination of very high quality in the grass, and enough grass around. And that food peak is around three weeks after snow melt, but now they were a few weeks later."

“在正常年份,它们一到达北极就开始产卵。但是现在,它们要先进行一周多的觅食然后再产卵。实际上,与之前到达后马上产卵相比,它们现在的产卵时间不会早太多。结果,在早春年份孵化出的小雁,存活率远低于正常年份。这可能是因为它们错过了食物高峰期,即周围草地质量超高且充足的时间。食物高峰期大约在融雪后的三周内,但是现在已经是几周之后了。”

With devastating6 effects.

这带来了毁灭性的影响。

"We looked at the daily survival of the goslings... If you calculate it over the whole month, then it's quite dramatic, they decrease from 20 percent to only 2 percent surviving. It basically means that not many goslings are surviving in such a year." The study is in the journal Current Biology.

“我们观察了小雁的每日存活率。如果一整个月都进行统计的话,那结果相当惊人,存活率从20%下降至仅剩2%。这基本上意味着在这样的年份里,没有多少小雁存活下来。”这项研究发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。

So why don't the geese just leave their wintering grounds earlier?

那为什么这些雁不能早点离开过冬地呢?

"When it's an early spring in the Arctic, it's not necessarily an early spring in the wintering area. So the birds cannot use any cue that's related to what's early or late spring to leave."

“北极是早春,但过冬地并不一定也是早春。因此,这些鸟无法利用早春或晚春的线索以决定离开时间。”

But Nolet does think there's some hope they might be able to adapt. "We know that the goslings learn their migration from their parents, so there's a lot of learned behavior in it. So it may well be that in the course of time, some birds discover that they have to depart earlier from their wintering areas to be able to time their migration perfectly7, and match it with the Arctic."

但诺莱特确实认为,它们有望适应这种现象。“我们知道小雁从父母那里学习迁徙,这其中包括很多习得行为。因此,随着时间的推移,一些鸟儿很可能会发现,它们不得不提前离开过冬地,以便能够完美地安排迁徙时间,并适应北极的早春。”

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Annie Sneed.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是安妮·斯尼德。


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 analyzed 483f1acae53789fbee273a644fdcda80     
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析
参考例句:
  • The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程,因为对他来说,爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 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。
3 migration mDpxj     
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙
参考例句:
  • Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
  • He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
4 timing rgUzGC     
n.时间安排,时间选择
参考例句:
  • The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
  • The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。
5 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
6 devastating muOzlG     
adj.毁灭性的,令人震惊的,强有力的
参考例句:
  • It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
  • Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。
7 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。