評論
打印
Although most life in tropical waters is concentrated around the coral reefs and the seagrass meadows,
雖然多數熱帶海洋生物聚集在珊瑚礁或者海洋牧場里
there are some spectacular exceptions.
不過還有些例外引人入勝。
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鳥筑巢的地方
But every year, a hundred thousand socotra cormorants gather here to breed.
可每年大約有10萬只黑喉鸕鶿在這里繁殖
It's swelteringly hot, and only vigorous panting can prevent the birds from fatal overheating.
這里相當酷熱，黑喉鸕鶿只好加速呼吸避免中暑。
This hardly seems a good place to rear young
看上去這里不是撫育后代的好地方，
but at least, there are no land based predators here.
不過至少沒有陸基的捕食者。
The only source of trouble is likely to be the neighbors
麻煩的唯一來源可能就是鄰居了，
so each nest is built just beyond pecking reach
所以每一個鳥窩都筑在鄰居啄不到的地方。
But what about food?
食物從哪里來呢?
There's only bare sand and the warm shallow sea beyond.
這個荒涼沙漠遠離溫暖的淺海。
Neither seem likely to produce enough nourishment to support bird life on this scale.
而且看上去也不能提供給鸕鶿足夠的食物。
The answer is blowing in the wind.
答案是刮起的大風。
Sand whipped up by Shamals offshore winds blows into the seas of the Arabian Gulf.
夏馬風卷起沙塵吹向波斯灣。
With the grains come nutrients, which act as fertilizer
風把帶著養分的沙塵，像肥料一樣撒進大海，
and they transform the shallow sea into a rich fishing ground
把這片淺海變成了富饒的漁場。
So, paradoxically, it's the roasted sands of Arabia that prevent the gulf from being another desert in the sea.
矛盾的是，熱浪朝天的的阿拉伯半島阻止海灣變成另一個海中沙漠。
