2020年经济学人为什么海龟吃塑料垃圾(1)（打印版）

Turtles have an unfortunate habit of devouring plastic objects floating in the sea.

海龟有一个坏习惯，就是吞食漂浮在海里的塑料制品。

These then get snared in their alimentary canals, cannot be broken down by the animals' digestive enzymes and may ultimately kill them.

然后这些东西会陷入消化道，无法被动物的消化酶分解，并最终可能致死。

It is widely assumed that this penchant for plastics is a matter of mistaken identity.

人们普遍认为，这种对塑料的嗜好是一种错误的识别。

Drifting plastic bags, for instance, look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat.

例如，漂浮的塑料袋看起来就像许多海龟喜欢吃的水母。

Yet lots of plastic objects that end up inside turtles have no resemblance to jellyfish.

然而，海龟体内的许多塑料制品却与水母毫无相似之处。

Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida therefore suspects that something more complicated is going on.

因此，佛罗里达大学的Joseph Pfaller怀疑，更复杂的事情正在发生。

As he writes in Current Biology, he thinks that the odour of marine micro-organisms which colonise floating plastic objects induces turtles to feed.

他在《Current Biology》中写道，海洋微生物附着在漂浮的塑料物体上，它们的气味诱使海龟进食。

The idea that the smell of plastic flotsam might lure animals to their doom first emerged in 2016.

塑料垃圾的气味可能会导致动物灭亡的想法最早出现在2016年。

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that certain chemicals, notably dimethyl sulphide,

加州大学戴维斯分校的研究人员注意到，某些化学物质，

which are released into the air by micro-organism-colonised plastics, are those which many seabirds sniff to track down food.

尤其是被微生物占领的塑料释放到空气中的二甲基硫化物，是许多海鸟用来寻找食物的。

These chemicals mark good places to hunt because they indicate an abundance of the algae

这些化学物质标记了捕食的好地方，因为它们表明在海洋食物链的底部

and bacteria that lie at the bottom of marine food chains. The researchers also found that birds

有大量的藻类和细菌。研究人员还发现，

which pursue their food in this way are five or six times more likely to eat plastic than those which do not.

以这种方式捕食的鸟类比不以这种方式捕食的鸟类吃塑料制品的可能性要大5到6倍。

Since turtles are known to break the surface periodically and sniff the air when navigating towards their feeding areas,

众所周知，海龟在游向觅食区域时，会周期性地破开水面，并嗅空气中的气味。

Dr Pfaller theorised that they are following these same chemicals, and are likewise fooled into thinking that floating plastic objects are edible.

因此，Pfaller博士推断，海龟也在遵循着这些相同的化学物质，而且同样会误以为漂浮的塑料物体是可以食用的。