Robert Lee Hotz/The Wall Street Journal
June 13, 2008; Page A10
英翻中: Me
Posted: Oct. 6, 2008
===============
June 13, 2008; Page A10
英翻中: Me
Posted: Oct. 6, 2008
===============
CONCORD, Mass. -- Following in the footsteps of Thoreau, Richard Primack stalked the wildflowers of Walden Pond, seeking in the first blooms of spring the signature of a changing climate.
Taking inventory while he walked, the Boston University biologist recorded in his water-stained field journal the appearance of pink mayflowers and lavender azaleas that brightened the pond-bank path. He plucked a sprig of wild greenbrier and ate it. Then he strode off the path through a shaded stand of pitch pine and oak, in pursuit of the yellow-eyed grass, golden ragwort and dwarf dogwood still on his checklist of first flowers.
麻州，康可 (Concord)—理查．普利馬克（Richard Primack) 追隨著梭羅 (Henry David Thoreau) 的腳步，一步一步的跟蹤著華登湖 (Walden Pond) 畔的野花，找尋各種花在春天的初現﹣那是氣候改變的象徵。粉紅色的山楂和淡紫色的杜鵑明媚了湖畔的景色；這位波士頓大學 (Boston University) 的生物學家一面走一面把所觀察到的仔細的登錄在他水漬斑斑的野外日誌上。他順手摘下一片野生的綠薔薇放入口裡吃，離開小徑，穿越一片蔭幽的多脂松樹與橡樹，去尋找黃眼草，金色的劉寄奴，和侏儒種的山茱庾﹣這些都是初春最早開花的種類，都是他計劃要一一拜訪的。
At the end of this day in late May, Dr. Primack added these notes to a unique archive he has assembled of botanical and wildlife observations that so far encompass 155 years of seasonal changes in Concord, Mass. In an effort to trace the influence of global warming, he has added his own records of the first spring blooms of common plant species around Walden Pond since 2004 to flowering times that date back to 1852.
在五月的這一天結束時， 普利馬克博士把當日所見記入他那本獨特的檔案簿裡。在這個檔案裡，他收集了麻州康可過去 155 年來在換季時節，野生動植物的觀察記錄。他從 2004 年開始記錄華登湖常見的植物在早春開花的時間。希望藉由比較自 1852 年以來春季開花的時間，能夠對全球暖化的影嚮有進一步的瞭解。
The archive is based on the voluminous notes about 700 plant species at Walden kept by 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who made this dark azure kettle-hole pond famous through his books and essays. Thoreau died, however, before he could publish his detailed observations of local wildflowers and wildfowl.
這個檔案起始於十九世紀的博物學家梭羅。他仔細的觀察華登湖附近大約 700 種植物並留下大量的記錄。他所寫的書和許多散文使得這個蔚藍的湖聞名世界。可惜他未能在死前將他對當地野花和野禽的觀察公諸於世。
In his own way, Thoreau was an instinctive climatologist. Subtle changes in animal and plant behavior documented today in the microcosm of Walden Pond, Dr. Primack and his colleagues believe, offer a preview of seasonal shifts expected in warming urban areas across North America in the century to come.
以某個角度看來，梭羅也是氣象學家。據推測在下個世紀，橫貫北美洲，逐漸暖化的都市區將有季節上的變遷。 普利馬克等人相信目前在華登湖這個具體而微的小世界裡所觀察到的各種動植物行為上微妙的變化可以讓我們預窺那些變遷。
These changes are revealed in the earlier blooming of the wild geranium, the Pink Lady's Slipper and black cherry, among others. All told, Dr. Primack and his colleagues are monitoring the behavior of 43 plant species and 22 bird species first singled out by Thoreau. "It is the spring species that are most sensitive to climate change," he said.
野生的天竺葵，貴婦的紅拖鞋，和黑櫻的提早開花是這些變遷其中幾個例子。普利馬克等人密切的觀察梭羅當初所特別列出的 43 種植物和 22 種鳥類。他說：「春天出現的動植物對氣候變遷特別敏感。」
New England weather records suggest that the average temperature of a Concord spring has increased by approximately 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since Thoreau's day, due to global climate change and urbanization. In response, spring flowers in Concord today are blooming on average seven days earlier than in the 1850s.
美國新英格蘭區（New England）的氣候記錄顯示，由於全球性的暖化和都市化，從梭羅的時代至今，平均氣溫已增高了華氏 4.5 度 （譯者註：約攝氏 2.5 度）。因此，現在康可的花比 1850 年代平均早了七天開花。
Yet in any one year, seasonal variations mask longer-term trends. In the spring of 2007, Concord was unusually warm; this spring it was unusually cool. In 2006, the golden ragwort first bloomed on May 26, Dr. Primack observed; this year it flowered three days earlier. "For reasons we don't understand, black cherries this year are late," he said.
但是年年的季節都不完全一樣，這些差異讓我們很難看出長期的趨勢。2007 年康可的春天出奇的暖和；今春卻出奇的涼爽。據普利馬克的觀察，金色的劉寄奴（ golden ragwort ）在2006年開花於五月26日；今年比它早了三天。他說：「不知什麼原因，今年的黑櫻花開倒是遲了。」
As diplomats and regulators debate the economics of limiting greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, many researchers have been assessing how plants and animals adapted to the 20th century's rising global average temperatures.
外交家與政府當局立法家還在辯論是否該限制造成全球暖化的溫室氣體，還在辯論其優缺點。科學家卻早已動手評估各種動植物如何適應 20 世紀全球的暖化。
For the first time last month, an international team led by NASA researchers formally linked physical and biological differences on a continental scale to human-induced climate change. In research published in Nature, the scientists pulled together findings about changes since 1970 in the behavior of 28,800 plant and animal species. "The warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems attributable on a global scale," reported lead researcher Cynthia Rosenzweig at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University.
以美國國家太空總署 （ NASA ）為首，成員包括各國科學家的一個團隊，於上個月首次將整個大陸生物行為和實質上的改變正式的歸疚於因人類的所作所為而產生的氣候之變化。他們在 “自然“ （Nature“) 上發表的論文中，詳列了自 1970 年來，28,800 種動植物行為上的改變。研究團隊的首席，太空總署的加德太空研究所 （ Goddard Institute for Space Studies）的 Cynthia Rosenzweig 在哥倫比亞大學 （ Columbia University）宣稱：「世界性的暖化對全球的生物造成實質上的衝擊。」
In England, plants now flower up to a month earlier than 50 years ago. Across Europe, leaves emerge an average of six days earlier than they did 30 years ago, records show.
在英格蘭，植物比 50 年前早了一個月開花。證據顯示，全歐洲皆然，樹葉比 30 年前平均早了六天萌芽。
Even so, studies based on a few decades of observations are too short to capture the cause and effect of climate change. Seeking the long view, Dr. Primack and his colleagues thought of Concord, easily the most intensively studied habitat in North America, thanks to Thoreau and the legions of amateur naturalists he inspired.
但是幾十年蒐集的證據實不足以捕捉氣候變遷的因果關係。 普利馬克團隊因此想到了康可。多虧梭羅和受他鼓舞的許多業餘博物學家，康可毫無疑問是北美洲被研究的最透徹的自然棲息地。
Long-term written records suitable for climate studies are rare in North America, but in Concord, botanists had completely catalogued the plants around Walden several times in the past century. The challenge was to find modern bird records that could be linked reliably to those kept by Thoreau.
在北美洲很難找到長期的記錄來研究氣候的變遷。但是過去這百年來，植物學家已經把華登湖附近的所有植物一遍又一遍，完完整整的科學歸類了。問題在能不能把現在的鳥類記錄連上梭羅的記錄。
Word of mouth in Concord eventually led them to Rosie Corey, a reticent, 77-year-old former grade-school teacher. She has kept unusually accurate records of local wildfowl behavior for 58 years. Elated by their find, they adopted her birding journals as a baseline for the timing of bird migrations during the past half-century.
他們在康可到處打聽，找到了 Rosie Corey 女士。她沉默寡言，芳齡77歲，原是小學老師，今已退休。過去 58 年來，她不孜不倦的記錄當地的野禽的行為；她的記錄出奇的正確。整個團隊驚喜慶幸，並採用她的觀鳥日誌做基準﹣﹣過去半個世紀候鳥遷徙的時間從此有了基準。
Seated at her dining room table, Ms. Corey opened one volume for a visitor. "It is a very dull account of my daily life, that I did laundry or that someone called me up or that I went downtown shopping -- or that I went walking and what I saw," she said. "If you have a sense of history and a sense of order, you like to keep a list."
Corey 女士坐在飯桌前，翻開一本記錄簿給訪客看。她說：「只是平鋪直述我不足為奇的日常生活，洗了衣服，有客來訪，去城裡買東西等等﹣或是出去散步看到些什麼。如果你喜歡歷史，喜歡生活中有點規律，你總會把這些事寫下來。」
She had written each entry in small letters, so that her day could fit on one page of her birder's book of hours. She supplemented entries with formal lists of bird sightings. The result aptly documented a New England life defined by borders and boundaries. As poet Robert Frost once ruminated, good fences make good neighbors. She turned down most invitations for company on her bird-walks, she said. She'd rather hike alone. "A flaw in my character, I suppose," she said.
為了要保持一天一頁的觀鳥記錄，她用小小的字體寫下她的觀察，並且每一次看到鳥的時間都正式列表而讓她的觀鳥記錄更為完整。結果呢，新英格蘭的生活由此有了恰當的定界。詩人佛洛斯特 （Robert Frost）深刻的反省說，不多管閒事的是好鄰居。有人要陪她散步觀鳥時，她總是婉拒；她寧可獨來獨往。她說：「大概是我性格上的缺陷吧。」
Outside her window, an indigo bunting was singing. An entry from Thoreau's journal came to mind: "I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home," he wrote in January 1857. "I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful."
窗外一隻靛青鳥唱著歌。我不禁想起梭羅日誌上，在1857 年一月的某天所寫的一句話：「就像思鄉的人歸鄉一般，我回到我孤獨自處的林中散步。我就此屏棄了膚淺的表象而看到了美麗壯觀的自然。」
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121329837789768809.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121303838507457977.html
(2) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php? t=2913
(3) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php? t=2913
(4) http://www.esa.org/
(5) http://www.bu.edu/biology/Faculty_Staff/primack.html
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18409423
(7) http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/2008/Rosenzweig_etal_1.html
(8) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v421/n6918/abs/nature01286.html
(9) http://www.thoreausociety.org/default.htm
(10) http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html
(11) http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/walden/
(12) mailto:sciencejournal@wsj.com
(13) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121303838507457977.html
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.
Taking inventory while he walked, the Boston University biologist recorded in his water-stained field journal the appearance of pink mayflowers and lavender azaleas that brightened the pond-bank path. He plucked a sprig of wild greenbrier and ate it. Then he strode off the path through a shaded stand of pitch pine and oak, in pursuit of the yellow-eyed grass, golden ragwort and dwarf dogwood still on his checklist of first flowers.
麻州，康可 (Concord)—理查．普利馬克（Richard Primack) 追隨著梭羅 (Henry David Thoreau) 的腳步，一步一步的跟蹤著華登湖 (Walden Pond) 畔的野花，找尋各種花在春天的初現﹣那是氣候改變的象徵。粉紅色的山楂和淡紫色的杜鵑明媚了湖畔的景色；這位波士頓大學 (Boston University) 的生物學家一面走一面把所觀察到的仔細的登錄在他水漬斑斑的野外日誌上。他順手摘下一片野生的綠薔薇放入口裡吃，離開小徑，穿越一片蔭幽的多脂松樹與橡樹，去尋找黃眼草，金色的劉寄奴，和侏儒種的山茱庾﹣這些都是初春最早開花的種類，都是他計劃要一一拜訪的。
At the end of this day in late May, Dr. Primack added these notes to a unique archive he has assembled of botanical and wildlife observations that so far encompass 155 years of seasonal changes in Concord, Mass. In an effort to trace the influence of global warming, he has added his own records of the first spring blooms of common plant species around Walden Pond since 2004 to flowering times that date back to 1852.
在五月的這一天結束時， 普利馬克博士把當日所見記入他那本獨特的檔案簿裡。在這個檔案裡，他收集了麻州康可過去 155 年來在換季時節，野生動植物的觀察記錄。他從 2004 年開始記錄華登湖常見的植物在早春開花的時間。希望藉由比較自 1852 年以來春季開花的時間，能夠對全球暖化的影嚮有進一步的瞭解。
The archive is based on the voluminous notes about 700 plant species at Walden kept by 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who made this dark azure kettle-hole pond famous through his books and essays. Thoreau died, however, before he could publish his detailed observations of local wildflowers and wildfowl.
這個檔案起始於十九世紀的博物學家梭羅。他仔細的觀察華登湖附近大約 700 種植物並留下大量的記錄。他所寫的書和許多散文使得這個蔚藍的湖聞名世界。可惜他未能在死前將他對當地野花和野禽的觀察公諸於世。
In his own way, Thoreau was an instinctive climatologist. Subtle changes in animal and plant behavior documented today in the microcosm of Walden Pond, Dr. Primack and his colleagues believe, offer a preview of seasonal shifts expected in warming urban areas across North America in the century to come.
以某個角度看來，梭羅也是氣象學家。據推測在下個世紀，橫貫北美洲，逐漸暖化的都市區將有季節上的變遷。 普利馬克等人相信目前在華登湖這個具體而微的小世界裡所觀察到的各種動植物行為上微妙的變化可以讓我們預窺那些變遷。
These changes are revealed in the earlier blooming of the wild geranium, the Pink Lady's Slipper and black cherry, among others. All told, Dr. Primack and his colleagues are monitoring the behavior of 43 plant species and 22 bird species first singled out by Thoreau. "It is the spring species that are most sensitive to climate change," he said.
野生的天竺葵，貴婦的紅拖鞋，和黑櫻的提早開花是這些變遷其中幾個例子。普利馬克等人密切的觀察梭羅當初所特別列出的 43 種植物和 22 種鳥類。他說：「春天出現的動植物對氣候變遷特別敏感。」
New England weather records suggest that the average temperature of a Concord spring has increased by approximately 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since Thoreau's day, due to global climate change and urbanization. In response, spring flowers in Concord today are blooming on average seven days earlier than in the 1850s.
美國新英格蘭區（New England）的氣候記錄顯示，由於全球性的暖化和都市化，從梭羅的時代至今，平均氣溫已增高了華氏 4.5 度 （譯者註：約攝氏 2.5 度）。因此，現在康可的花比 1850 年代平均早了七天開花。
Yet in any one year, seasonal variations mask longer-term trends. In the spring of 2007, Concord was unusually warm; this spring it was unusually cool. In 2006, the golden ragwort first bloomed on May 26, Dr. Primack observed; this year it flowered three days earlier. "For reasons we don't understand, black cherries this year are late," he said.
但是年年的季節都不完全一樣，這些差異讓我們很難看出長期的趨勢。2007 年康可的春天出奇的暖和；今春卻出奇的涼爽。據普利馬克的觀察，金色的劉寄奴（ golden ragwort ）在2006年開花於五月26日；今年比它早了三天。他說：「不知什麼原因，今年的黑櫻花開倒是遲了。」
As diplomats and regulators debate the economics of limiting greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, many researchers have been assessing how plants and animals adapted to the 20th century's rising global average temperatures.
外交家與政府當局立法家還在辯論是否該限制造成全球暖化的溫室氣體，還在辯論其優缺點。科學家卻早已動手評估各種動植物如何適應 20 世紀全球的暖化。
For the first time last month, an international team led by NASA researchers formally linked physical and biological differences on a continental scale to human-induced climate change. In research published in Nature, the scientists pulled together findings about changes since 1970 in the behavior of 28,800 plant and animal species. "The warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems attributable on a global scale," reported lead researcher Cynthia Rosenzweig at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University.
以美國國家太空總署 （ NASA ）為首，成員包括各國科學家的一個團隊，於上個月首次將整個大陸生物行為和實質上的改變正式的歸疚於因人類的所作所為而產生的氣候之變化。他們在 “自然“ （Nature“) 上發表的論文中，詳列了自 1970 年來，28,800 種動植物行為上的改變。研究團隊的首席，太空總署的加德太空研究所 （ Goddard Institute for Space Studies）的 Cynthia Rosenzweig 在哥倫比亞大學 （ Columbia University）宣稱：「世界性的暖化對全球的生物造成實質上的衝擊。」
In England, plants now flower up to a month earlier than 50 years ago. Across Europe, leaves emerge an average of six days earlier than they did 30 years ago, records show.
在英格蘭，植物比 50 年前早了一個月開花。證據顯示，全歐洲皆然，樹葉比 30 年前平均早了六天萌芽。
Even so, studies based on a few decades of observations are too short to capture the cause and effect of climate change. Seeking the long view, Dr. Primack and his colleagues thought of Concord, easily the most intensively studied habitat in North America, thanks to Thoreau and the legions of amateur naturalists he inspired.
但是幾十年蒐集的證據實不足以捕捉氣候變遷的因果關係。 普利馬克團隊因此想到了康可。多虧梭羅和受他鼓舞的許多業餘博物學家，康可毫無疑問是北美洲被研究的最透徹的自然棲息地。
Long-term written records suitable for climate studies are rare in North America, but in Concord, botanists had completely catalogued the plants around Walden several times in the past century. The challenge was to find modern bird records that could be linked reliably to those kept by Thoreau.
在北美洲很難找到長期的記錄來研究氣候的變遷。但是過去這百年來，植物學家已經把華登湖附近的所有植物一遍又一遍，完完整整的科學歸類了。問題在能不能把現在的鳥類記錄連上梭羅的記錄。
Word of mouth in Concord eventually led them to Rosie Corey, a reticent, 77-year-old former grade-school teacher. She has kept unusually accurate records of local wildfowl behavior for 58 years. Elated by their find, they adopted her birding journals as a baseline for the timing of bird migrations during the past half-century.
他們在康可到處打聽，找到了 Rosie Corey 女士。她沉默寡言，芳齡77歲，原是小學老師，今已退休。過去 58 年來，她不孜不倦的記錄當地的野禽的行為；她的記錄出奇的正確。整個團隊驚喜慶幸，並採用她的觀鳥日誌做基準﹣﹣過去半個世紀候鳥遷徙的時間從此有了基準。
Seated at her dining room table, Ms. Corey opened one volume for a visitor. "It is a very dull account of my daily life, that I did laundry or that someone called me up or that I went downtown shopping -- or that I went walking and what I saw," she said. "If you have a sense of history and a sense of order, you like to keep a list."
Corey 女士坐在飯桌前，翻開一本記錄簿給訪客看。她說：「只是平鋪直述我不足為奇的日常生活，洗了衣服，有客來訪，去城裡買東西等等﹣或是出去散步看到些什麼。如果你喜歡歷史，喜歡生活中有點規律，你總會把這些事寫下來。」
She had written each entry in small letters, so that her day could fit on one page of her birder's book of hours. She supplemented entries with formal lists of bird sightings. The result aptly documented a New England life defined by borders and boundaries. As poet Robert Frost once ruminated, good fences make good neighbors. She turned down most invitations for company on her bird-walks, she said. She'd rather hike alone. "A flaw in my character, I suppose," she said.
為了要保持一天一頁的觀鳥記錄，她用小小的字體寫下她的觀察，並且每一次看到鳥的時間都正式列表而讓她的觀鳥記錄更為完整。結果呢，新英格蘭的生活由此有了恰當的定界。詩人佛洛斯特 （Robert Frost）深刻的反省說，不多管閒事的是好鄰居。有人要陪她散步觀鳥時，她總是婉拒；她寧可獨來獨往。她說：「大概是我性格上的缺陷吧。」
Outside her window, an indigo bunting was singing. An entry from Thoreau's journal came to mind: "I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home," he wrote in January 1857. "I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful."
窗外一隻靛青鳥唱著歌。我不禁想起梭羅日誌上，在1857 年一月的某天所寫的一句話：「就像思鄉的人歸鄉一般，我回到我孤獨自處的林中散步。我就此屏棄了膚淺的表象而看到了美麗壯觀的自然。」
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121329837789768809.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121303838507457977.html
(2) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php? t=2913
(3) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php? t=2913
(4) http://www.esa.org/
(5) http://www.bu.edu/biology/Faculty_Staff/primack.html
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18409423
(7) http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/2008/Rosenzweig_etal_1.html
(8) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v421/n6918/abs/nature01286.html
(9) http://www.thoreausociety.org/default.htm
(10) http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html
(11) http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/walden/
(12) mailto:sciencejournal@wsj.com
(13) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121303838507457977.html
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment