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Thanks so much for joining us.
非常感谢你参加我们的节目。
Could you start by just telling us why coral reefs are such important ecosystems?
你能先告诉我们为什么珊瑚礁是很重要的生态系统吗？
Yeah, coral reefs are an absolutely critical ecosystem to many hundreds of millions of people who live throughout the tropics.
好，对于生活在热带地区的数亿人来说，珊瑚礁是一个绝对重要的生态系统。
They're important for food security.
它们对粮食安全很重要。
They're important for reef tourism, which is a huge part of the economy of many countries, typically fairly small, rapidly developing countries, where employment options are often restricted.
它们对珊瑚礁旅游业很重要，珊瑚礁旅游业是许多国家经济的重要组成部分，而这些国家相对较小，处于快速发展中，那里的就业选择往往受到限制。
So the social and economic value of coral reefs, especially to people in the tropics, is enormous.
因此，珊瑚礁的社会和经济价值是巨大的，特别是对热带地区的人们来说。
You know, the value of coral reefs differs to different people.
你知道，珊瑚礁的价值因人而异。
Wealthy countries tend to view them as a nice place for a vacation.
富裕国家倾向于将其视为度假的好地方。
That's a reasonable reason for valuing coral reefs.
这是珍视珊瑚礁的合理理由。
But more importantly is the poor people who live beside them that depend on coral reefs for their food security and for the other so-called ecosystem services that coral reefs provide to societies.
但更重要的是生活在他们身边的穷人，他们依赖于珊瑚礁提供的食物安全和珊瑚礁为社会提供的其他所谓的生态系统服务。
That makes sense.
这事儿可以理解。
So scientists have determined that we’re in the middle of a global mass bleaching event.
科学家们已经确定，我们正处于一场全球珊瑚礁大规模白化的事件中。
What exactly does that mean?
这到底是什么意思？
Coral bleaching is a stress response by corals.
珊瑚白化是珊瑚对压力做出的反应。
You can make a coral bleach if you torture it in any number of ways in an aquarium.
在水族馆里，如果你以任何方式折磨珊瑚，它都会白化。
If you make the salinity too high or too low, if you make the temperature too high or too low, if you add toxic chemicals or sediment, the coral will get stressed and it will lose its color.
如果你把水质的盐度调得太高或太低，把温度调得太高或太低，如果你往水里加入有毒化学物质或沉淀物，珊瑚就会感受到压力，它会失去颜色。
The color comes from microscopic symbionts that live inside the tissue of the coral host, and that symbiotic relationship breaks down when the coral is stressed.
珊瑚的颜色来自珊瑚宿主组织内的微小共生体，当珊瑚感受到压力时，这种共生关系就会破裂。
But the kinds of bleaching we've been seeing now since the 1980s around the world is driven indisputably by rising sea temperatures because nothing else is happening at that kind of scale.
但自20世纪80年代以来，世界各地出现的珊瑚白化毫无疑问是由海洋温度上升导致的，因为没有其他任何事情达到了这种规模。
We're talking thousands of kilometers of coastline or even globally, those kinds of bleaching events are triggered by exceptionally warm sea temperatures driven by anthropogenic heating, primarily from burning fossil fuels and from deforestation.
我们说的是数千公里的海岸线，甚至是全球范围内，这些白化事件主要是人类燃烧化石燃料和砍伐森林，导致全球变暖，从而使海洋异常温暖导致的。
And of course, there's nowhere to hide from global warming.
当然，全球变暖也无处可躲。
So even the most remote, most pristine coral reefs are vulnerable to these repeated bo- bouts of bleaching.
因此，即使是最偏远、最原始的珊瑚礁也很容易受到这种反复的白化浪潮的影响。
Sometimes there isn't actually enough time for bleaching to unfold.
有时，珊瑚甚至都没有足够的时间慢慢白化。
The corals just die from heat stress directly. They literally cook.
它会因为热应激直接死亡。它们真的会被煮熟。
And we saw that last summer in the Florida Keys and throughout the Caribbean where sea temperatures were off the charts.
去年夏天，我们在佛罗里达群岛和整个加勒比海看到了这种现象，那里的海洋温度高出了预期。
We've seen that repeatedly closer to my home in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef.
在我澳大利亚大堡礁上的家附近，我们也多次看到过这种情况。
We also see a phenomenon where a coral becomes unusually colorful. It literally glows.
我们还见过珊瑚的颜色变得过于鲜艳的现象。它会发光。
And that's caused by a protein produced by the coral in a desperate bid to stay alive.
这是由珊瑚为了生存而不顾一切地产生一种蛋白质造成的。
Those proteins act as a sort of sunscreen.
这些蛋白质就像防晒霜。
But it's not a very effective way of defending against record temperatures.
但它并不能很有效地抵御创纪录的高温。
So corals typically die within a week or two of becoming very colorful.
因此，珊瑚通常会在变得过于鲜艳后的一两周内死亡。
How are scientists able to determine whether bleaching is happening on a global scale?
科学家如何确定白化是否是在全球范围内发生的？
So there are two ways to measure the extent of bleaching.
有两种方法可以衡量白化的程度。
One is directly through observations of individual reefs, and the other is indirectly using satellite data, which is what NOAA does.
一种是直接对个别珊瑚礁进行观测，另一种是间接使用卫星数据，这就是NOAA在做的事。
Satellite data tells you how hot the water has been for how long.
卫星数据可以告诉你水面的温度，以及它的持续时间。
And you can use that as a proxy for the intensity of bleaching.
你可以通过它了解珊瑚白化程度。
