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In the upper layers of the ocean, microplastics have invaded the food chain, collecting in higher and higher concentrations as one moves upwards through the layers of predation.[qh]
在海洋的上层，微塑料侵入了食物链，随着食物链层级的上升，微塑料的浓度越来越高。[qh]
In some parts of the Pacific, there is now more zooplankton-sized plastic than plankton, meaning animals such as whales and birds are consuming microplastics in large quantities, leading to malnutrition and damage to many organs as the microplastics collect in their tissues.[qh]
在太平洋的一些地区，现在浮游动物大小的塑料比浮游生物还多，这意味着鲸鱼和鸟类等动物正在大量摄入微塑料，导致营养不良，并随着微塑料在组织中积聚而对许多器官造成损害。[qh]
The volume of plastic in the surface layers of the ocean pales in comparison with the amount in deeper waters.[qh]
海洋表层的塑料量与深海中的塑料量相比显得微不足道。[qh]
Studies suggest that as much as 99.8% of the more than 11m tonnes of plastic that enters the ocean every year disappears into deeper waters.[qh]
研究表明，每年进入海洋的1100多万吨塑料中，多达99.8%消失在更深的水域。[qh]
Larger plastic objects simply sink, but microplastics take far more circuitous routes.[qh]
较大的塑料物体会下沉，但微塑料的路径要迂回得多。[qh]
Some drifts downwards with the marine snow, expelled in the faeces of fish and other animals, or congealed in fragments of decaying zooplankton and algae: one model suggests this process may transport more than 400,000 tonnes of plastic into the deep ocean every year.[qh]
一些塑料随海洋雪向下漂流，随鱼类和其他动物的粪便排出，或凝结在腐烂的浮游动物和藻类的碎片中：一个模型表明，这一过程每年可能会将40多万吨塑料带入深海。[qh]
Nor is plastic the only thing that drifts downwards.[qh]
塑料并不是唯一向下漂流的东西。[qh]
In 2019 Chinese scientists discovered radioactive carbon-14 from the detonation of nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 50s in the bodies of amphipods living at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, borne into the deep not by ocean circulation, but in the rain of organic matter from above.[qh]
2019年，中国科学家在生活在马里亚纳海沟底部的片脚类动物体内发现了20世纪40年代和50年代核弹爆炸产生的放射性碳-14，它们不是通过海洋环流带入深海的，而是通过天上下雨带来有机物带入的。[qh]
More recent studies have found radioactive caesium from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in sediment more than 7,000 metres down in the Japan Trench.[qh]
最近的研究在日本海沟7000多米深处的沉积物中发现了福岛核灾难产生的放射性铯。[qh]
Many chemicals accumulate in much the same way.[qh]
许多化学物质的积累方式大致相同。[qh]
Some of the most worrying of these are what are known as persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls.[qh]
其中最令人担忧的是所谓的持久性有机污染物，如多氯联苯。[qh]
These PCBs were originally used for cooling and insulation in the 1920s, but by the 40s they were being incorporated into paints, adhesives, the PVC coatings on electrical wires and a plethora of other products.[qh]
这些多氯联苯最初在20世纪20年代用于冷却和绝缘，但到40年代，它们被纳入油漆，粘合剂，电线上的PVC涂层和大量其他产品中。[qh]
The widespread use of PCBs meant large quantities were released into the environment, but the effect of that did not become apparent until the 1950s, when the Danish scientist So?ren Jensen found traces of them in pike caught in Sweden.[qh]
多氯联苯的广泛使用意味着大量的多氯联苯被释放到环境中，但其影响直到20世纪50年代才变得明显，当时丹麦科学家苏林·詹森在瑞典捕获的梭子鱼中发现了它们的痕迹。[qh]
Over the next two years, Jensen detected traces of PCBs everywhere: in fish, in birds – even in the bodies of his wife and daughter.[qh]
在接下来的两年里，詹森到处都检测到了多氯联苯的痕迹：在鱼身上，在鸟身上——甚至在他妻子和女儿的身体里。[qh]
