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By midsummer, the surface nutrients have all been absorbed.
直到夏至，海洋表面的養分全部被攝取。
The algae die and the food chain collapses.
藻類死亡，食物鏈因此崩潰。
In a few special places, however
然而在少數特別的地方，
the temperate seas sustain these levels of life throughout the summer.
氣候溫和的海域維持這個生命水平貫穿整個夏季。
Along the coast of California,
在加利福尼亞沿海，
ocean currents carry a constant supply of nutrients up from the depths to the surface layers.
洋流持續不斷的把養分從海底帶到海平面上來。
These upwellings fertilize forests of giant kelp, that thrive in the summer sunshine.
這種上升洋流給巨藻帶來了大量養分在夏日陽光照射下它們飛速生長。
The algal towers are as high as a three story house, and they can grow by half a meter a day.
這片巨藻林有足有三層樓那么高，它們每天還能長半米。
Life in the kelp is as full of drama, as in any other forest, but the cast is less familiar.
海藻中的生命充滿戲劇性，跟其他森林一樣，但演員們仍不太為人知。
An army of sea urchins is mounting an attack.
一大群紫海膽正在發動進攻。
The urchin plague strikes at the kelp's holdfasts their crucial attachments to the rock.
海膽們正在吃巨藻的固著器--把巨藻固定在石頭上的重要裝置。
Holdfasts are extremely tough, but each urchin has five teeth,
固著器非常堅硬，但是每只海膽有5個鋒利的牙齒，
which are self sharpening and are replaced every few months.
而且每隔幾個月就換牙。
Urchins fell vast areas of kelp forest,
海膽吃掉了大片的海藻森林，
creating clearings know as urchin barrens, yet barrens is a poor description.
把它們變成了不毛之地，無法形容的荒涼。
