科学美国人60秒 SSS 海底噪音压力妨碍螃蟹伪装

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard¹.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。

Large oceangoing vessels² like oil tankers³ and cruise ships produce noise that travels long distances underwater. That audio pollution can disrupt the sounds that marine⁴ mammals, fish and other animals use to communicate.

油轮和游轮这类大型远洋船只会产生在水下长距离传播的噪音。这种声音污染会干扰海洋哺乳动物、鱼类和其它动物的交流声音。

"When there's lots of noise from ship traffic, it basically masks those sounds so they just can't hear each other."

“船舶交通产生大量噪音时，基本上会掩盖动物的交流声音，导致动物听不到彼此的声音。”

University of Exeter sensory⁵ ecologist Emily Carter. She wondered whether ship noise might also be detrimental⁶ to animals that don't rely on sound for communication. For example, young shore crabs⁷ that use camouflage⁸ to hide from predators¹⁰.

埃克塞特大学的感官生态学家艾米莉·卡特说到。她想知道船舶噪音是否也会对不依赖声音进行交流的动物造成危害。比如用伪装来躲避捕食者的年轻食草蟹。

"So they can actually change their color to match whatever it is that they're sitting on, basically to make it harder for predators to find them."

“它们可以通过变色让自已与身上物体的颜色相一致，使捕食者更难找到它们。”

Carter suspected that stress from ship noise might hinder the change process. To find out, she and her colleagues collected juvenile¹¹ shore crabs with dark shells and brought them back to the lab. They placed the crabs in tanks full of white gravel¹². An underwater speaker in each tank played quiet natural sounds at all times. One group of crabs also heard loud natural sounds every hour. But another group was subjected to hourly recordings¹³ of large ships.

卡特怀疑船舶噪音压力可能会阻碍变色过程。为了找到答案，她和同事收集了黑壳年轻食草蟹，并把它们带回实验室。他们将食草蟹放入装满白色碎石的水箱里。每个水箱里都装有一个水下扬声器，始终播放安静的自然声音。一组食草蟹每隔一小时还会听到喧闹的自然声音。但另一组食草蟹每小时都要遭受大型船只噪音的侵袭。

Carter says shorebirds—which eat the crabs—can see UV light, so she used ultraviolet photography to determine how well the crabs blended into their new habitat over time.

卡特表示，以食草蟹为食的滨鸟能看到紫外线，因此她用紫外线照相技术判断食草蟹随时间推移融入新栖息地的程度。

"Through the eyes of a shorebird—so through a bird's perspective—were they camouflaged¹⁴? Weren't they camouflaged? How obvious would they be?"

“通过滨鸟的眼睛，即通过鸟类视角，来观察食草蟹是否在伪装，是否没有伪装以及它们有多明显。”

After eight weeks, the crabs that heard only natural sounds had become much lighter¹⁵ and were well camouflaged. "But the ones that w?ere exposed to the ship noise didn't change color as much. And then, as a result, they weren't as camouflaged at the end of the experiment. So they'd be much more noticeable to a predator⁹."

八周后，只听自然声音的食草蟹的颜色变浅，伪装得很好。“但那些暴露在船舶噪音中的食草蟹，颜色并未改变那么多。结果，它们在实验结束时也没怎么伪装。因此，它们会更容易被捕食者发现。”

What's more, in another experiment, crabs failed to flee when they heard ship noise during a simulated predator attack.

更重要的是，在另一项实验进行模拟捕食者攻击时，听船舶噪音的螃蟹逃跑失败。

"They either didn't respond at all, or they did respond, but they were much, much slower to do so. So in a real life setting, they would have been captured much more easily."

“它们要么完全没有反应，要么做出了反应，但反应慢了太多。因此在真实生活环境中，它们会更容易被捉住。”

Carter says the stress caused by ship noise may interfere¹⁶ with hormones¹⁷ that regulate color change in crabs or sap the energy needed to make the change efficiently¹⁸. The study is in the journal Current Biology.

卡特表示，船舶噪音造成的压力可能会干扰管理螃蟹变色的荷尔蒙，或消耗有效变色所需的能量。这项研究发表在《当代生物学》期刊上。

The research not only puts a spotlight¹⁹ on the unintended consequences of noise pollution, but is a reminder²⁰ that too much stress isn't just bad for people—it can also be deadly to wildlife that needs some peace and quiet.

这项研究不仅强调噪音污染的意外后果，同时提醒人们，过多压力不仅对人类有害，对需要宁静的野生动物来说还可能是致命的。

1 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

2 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 tankers   

运送大量液体或气体的轮船[卡车]( tanker的名词复数 )； 油轮； 罐车； 油槽车

参考例句：

• They should stop offloading waste from oil tankers into the sea. 他们应当停止从油轮上往海里倾倒废弃物。
• The harbour admits large tankers and freighters. 这个港口容得下巨型油船和货轮。

4 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

5 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

6 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

7 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

9 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

10 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

12 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

13 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

14 camouflaged   

v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰

参考例句：

• We camouflaged in the bushes and no one saw us. 我们隐藏在灌木丛中没有被人发现。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They camouflaged in bushes. 他们隐蔽在灌木丛中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

16 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

17 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

18 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

19 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

20 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。