纪录片《我们的地球》 第175期 多样浅海(09)（在线收听）

Although most life in tropical waters is concentrated around the coral reefs and the seagrass meadows,

虽然多数热带海洋生物聚集在珊瑚礁或者海洋牧场里

there are some spectacular exceptions.

不过还有些例外引人入胜。

The desert of Bahrain seems a very unlikely place to find a crowded bustling colony of seabirds.

巴林的戈壁沙漠看上去不像是能有大量海鸟筑巢的地方

But every year, a hundred thousand socotra cormorants gather here to breed.

可每年大约有10万只黑喉鸬鹚在这里繁殖

It's swelteringly hot, and only vigorous panting can prevent the birds from fatal overheating.

这里相当酷热，黑喉鸬鹚只好加速呼吸避免中暑。

This hardly seems a good place to rear young

看上去这里不是抚育后代的好地方，

but at least, there are no land based predators here.

不过至少没有陆基的捕食者。

The only source of trouble is likely to be the neighbors

麻烦的唯一来源可能就是邻居了，

so each nest is built just beyond pecking reach

所以每一个鸟窝都筑在邻居啄不到的地方。

But what about food?

食物从哪里来呢?

There's only bare sand and the warm shallow sea beyond.

这个荒凉沙漠远离温暖的浅海。

Neither seem likely to produce enough nourishment to support bird life on this scale.

而且看上去也不能提供给鸬鹚足够的食物。

The answer is blowing in the wind.

答案是刮起的大风。

Sand whipped up by Shamals offshore winds blows into the seas of the Arabian Gulf.

夏马风卷起沙尘吹向波斯湾。

With the grains come nutrients, which act as fertilizer

风把带着养分的沙尘，像肥料一样撒进大海，

and they transform the shallow sea into a rich fishing ground

把这片浅海变成了富饶的渔场。

So, paradoxically, it's the roasted sands of Arabia that prevent the gulf from being another desert in the sea.

矛盾的是，热浪朝天的的阿拉伯半岛阻止海湾变成另一个海中沙漠。