評論
打印
The first day of the experiment, we got out to our plot
實(shí)驗(yàn)的第一天，我們來到了實(shí)驗(yàn)地點(diǎn)，
and a grizzly bear and her cub chased us off.
突然一頭灰熊和她的熊寶寶出現(xiàn)，把我們趕跑了。
And I had no bear spray. But you know, this is how forest research in Canada goes.
然后我還沒帶防熊噴霧劑。但你知道嗎，在加拿大做森林研究其實(shí)就是這樣的。
So I came back the next day, and mama grizzly and her cub were gone.
所以第二天我又回來了，灰熊媽媽和熊寶寶沒在。
So this time, we really got started, and I pulled on my white paper suit,
這一次我們可以真正開始實(shí)驗(yàn)了，我穿上我的白紙?zhí)籽b工作服，
I put on my respirator, and then I put the plastic bags over my trees.
帶上呼吸器，然后給我的樹都罩上了塑料袋。
I got my giant syringes, and I injected the bags with my tracer isotope carbon dioxide gases, first the birch.
我拿出我那些大注射器，往袋子里面注入了含有示蹤同位素的二氧化碳?xì)怏w，首先是紙皮樺。
I injected carbon-14, the radioactive gas, into the bag of birch.
我往罩紙皮樺的袋子里面打入了有放射性碳14的氣體。
And then for fir, I injected the stable isotope carbon-13 carbon dioxide gas.
然后是花旗松，我往他們的袋子中注射了含有穩(wěn)定性同位素碳13的二氧化碳。
I used two isotopes, because I was wondering whether there was two-way communication going on between these species.
我用了兩種同位素，因?yàn)槲也恢肋@兩種樹之間的交流是否是雙向的。
I got to the final bag, the 80th replicate, and all of a sudden mama grizzly showed up again.
當(dāng)我走向最后一個(gè)袋子時(shí)，也就是第80棵樣本，突然間那頭灰熊媽媽又出現(xiàn)了。
And she started to chase me, and I had my syringes above my head,
然后她開始追我，我把我們的那些注射器舉過頭頂，
and I was swatting the mosquitos, and I jumped into the truck,
撲打著周圍無數(shù)的蚊子，然后跳上了卡車，
and I thought, "This is why people do lab studies."
然后我想，“這就是為什么人們喜歡在實(shí)驗(yàn)室做實(shí)驗(yàn)的原因吧。”
I waited an hour. I figured it would take this long for the trees to suck up the CO2 through photosynthesis,
我等了一小時(shí)。我覺得這個(gè)時(shí)間差不多可以讓那些樹通過光合作用吸收二氧化碳，
turn it into sugars, send it down into their roots,
轉(zhuǎn)換生成糖，再把糖送到它們的根，
and maybe, I hypothesized, shuttle that carbon belowground to their neighbors.
然后也許，我也是猜測，把那些碳元素從地下傳給它們的鄰居。
