评论
打印
Too hot? Some peaks offer climate migrants lots of land
太热？许多高山为气候移居者提供居住地
Pikas like it cool. That’s why, as Earth’s climate warms, these furry mountain creatures are heading uphill. They’re searching for the chillier environments they prefer. And pikas aren’t alone. A 2011 study found that many mountain species have been shifting their range. They’ve been moving uphill by an average of 11 meters (36 feet) every decade since the 1960s.
兔鼠喜欢它的凉爽。这就是为什么随着地球气温升高，这些皮毛山地物种会选择更高的地方。他们探寻着自己喜爱的更加凉爽的环境。这样做的不仅仅只有鼠兔。2011年的一项研究发现许多高山物种正慢慢转移他们的栖居范围。自20世纪60年代起，他们每10年向更高处迁徙平均11米（36尺）。
Explainer: Global warming and the greenhouse effect
解说员：全球气候变暖和温室效应
Scientists had assumed this would be bad news for the refugees. For one, the higher up a mountain they traveled, the less space that should be available to house them. After all, mountains are shaped like pyramids, right?
科学家假定对于难民来说，这算是一个坏消息。一方面，他们向更高的地方搬迁，那么他们的居住面积就会变得越小。毕竟很多山的形状都是类似于金字塔式的。
Not necessarily, a new study concludes.
一项新研究总结：并不一定要这样
In many mountain ranges, animals like pikas and birds may actually gain ground when they head uphill, the study shows. Paul Elsen is an ecologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. His team published its observations on May 18 in Nature Climate Change.
研究表明，在许多山脉，像兔鼠类及鸟类动物向山上迁徙的过程中会争夺地盘。Paul Elsen是美国新泽西州普林斯顿大学生物学家。他的团队于5月18日在“自然气候变化”上发表了这一研究结果。
Most researchers figured that the real estate available to migrating species would shrink the higher uphill they moved. If true, that would suggest that many global-warming migrants might run out of new sites to colonize — and face extinction.
许多研究者假设可用来进行生物迁徙的土地会缩小他们搬到的更高的栖居地。如果这一情况属实，那么说明了许多全球气候变暖移居者和可能会用尽新的居住地，导致濒临灭绝。
The American pika, a relative of rabbits, prefers to live in cool settings.
美国鼠兔，兔子的一种，喜欢居住在较冷的地方。
But Elsen started to have his doubts about this while he was studying birds in the Himalayas. That’s a massive mountain range in East Asia. “I would hike up and reach these broad plateaus,” he recalls. He realized that such land features might actually offer more usable real estate to some species than they had had available to them on the steep slopes below.
但是当Elsen还在喜马拉雅山研究鸟类时她开始对此产生怀疑，那是亚洲的一个巨大山脉。“我会徒步登上去到达这些辽阔的高原”，他回忆道。他意识到这样的地貌很可能会为一些正居住在陡坡上的物种提供更合适栖居场所。
译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
