科学美国人60秒 SSS 入侵物种威胁南极地区（在线收听）

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 juts 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 invertebrates in the soil. It's already taking over the nutrient 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 marine and terrestrial species that might be poised to take up residence on the continent. From that list, they pinpointed 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 smother native species. Antarctic shores and shallow waters could also fill with crabs, 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 predators coming in. And the potential for crabs to chomp away at what's sitting on the seabed is quite a frightening prospect."

“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 mite, a springtail and several species of buttonweed plants as potential invaders. 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 wildernesses we have on the planet. We want to keep this place pristine for scientific research. Because it's told us so much about how the world works; how climate works; how ecosystems 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 thawing 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。