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This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Antarctica is a lonely continent. But the Antarctic Peninsula, the little "tail" that juts¹ out toward South America, is a hub of human activity. More than 50 scientific research stations are based there. And in a recent travel season, 42,000 tourists visited, mostly from cruise ships.

南极洲是一个孤独的大陆。但南极半岛，这个伸向南美洲的“小尾巴”，是人类活动的中心。那里有50多座科研站。在最近的旅游旺季，有42000名游客到访该半岛，其中大部分乘坐游轮抵达。

Problem is when humans go somewhere, hitchhikers come with—like a nonnative flightless midge, an insect that has already taken up residence in the peninsular region.

问题是，当人类去某个地方时，搭便车者也随之而来，比如非本土不会飞的蠓虫，这是一种已经在半岛地区定居的昆虫。

"And its biomass is greater than the biomass all the other invertebrates² in the soil. It's already taking over the nutrient³ cycling in that environment."

“其生物量比土壤中所有其它无脊椎动物的总生物量还要多。这种昆虫已经掌控了环境中的养分循环。”

Kevin Hughes is an environmental researcher with the British Antarctic Survey. He and a team of experts recently reviewed a list of 103 marine⁴ and terrestrial species that might be poised⁵ to take up residence on the continent. From that list, they pinpointed⁶ the 13 most likely to arrive, establish themselves and become invasive in the next decade.

英国南极调查局的环境研究员凯文·休斯说到。他和一个专家小组最近审查了一份名单，该名单包括103种可能会在南极大陆定居的海洋和陆地物种。他们从名单中准确找到了未来十年最有可能到达、立足并成为入侵物种的13种生物。

At the top? Mussels, which stick to ships and could carpet shorelines and smother⁷ native species. Antarctic shores and shallow waters could also fill with crabs⁸, which haven't existed in those habitats for millions of years.

排在首位的是什么？贻贝，这种生物粘在船上，可以覆盖海岸线，并让本土物种窒息死亡。南极海岸和浅水区也可能爬满螃蟹，这些螃蟹数百万年来都未在这里的栖息地存在过。

"So the communities are just not used to these sorts of predators⁹ coming in. And the potential for crabs to chomp¹⁰ away at what's sitting on the seabed is quite a frightening prospect¹¹."

“当地只是不习惯这种捕食者的到来。螃蟹可能会吞食海床上的生物，这一场景相当可怕。”

On land, the scientists flagged a mite¹², a springtail and several species of buttonweed plants as potential invaders¹³. The full list is in the journal Global Change Biology.

在陆地，科学家将螨虫、跳虫和多种纽扣草族植物标注为潜在入侵者。完整的名单刊登在《全球变化生物学》期刊上。

"We have to remember that Antarctica is really one of the last great wildernesses¹⁴ we have on the planet. We want to keep this place pristine¹⁵ for scientific research. Because it's told us so much about how the world works; how climate works; how ecosystems¹⁶ can be put together; how they function. So it's just incredibly important that we just keep it as pristine as we possibly can."

“我们必须记住，南极洲是地球上仅存的大片荒野之一。为了科学研究，我们要保持这个地方的原始状态。因为这里告诉了我们如此多的信息，比如世界运转方式；气候运作形式；生态系统如何组合及运行。因此，尽我们所能保持这里的原始纯净极为重要。”

But that task keeps getting more difficult. Because climate change is slowly thawing¹⁷ the "frozen continent," making it easier for invaders to gain a foothold.

但这项任务正愈加艰难。因为气候变化正在慢慢融化这片“冰冻大陆”，使入侵者更容易站稳脚跟。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。