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Rather than cringing at the next beetle or wasp in your way, you might want to thank them—for helping to keep city streets clean.
下次再偶遇甲蟲或大黃蜂，不要感到畏懼，你要充滿感激之情，因為它們幫助我們清潔城市街道的垃圾。
Researchers from North Carolina State University working in New York City found that hungry urban arthropods play a significant role in the disposal of trash.
美國北卡羅來納州立大學(xué)研究人員在紐約市的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)這些饑餓的節(jié)肢動物在處理垃圾方面成為了關(guān)鍵先生。
For example, in a small section of Manhattan called the Broadway/West Street.corridor, insects consume the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs a year that would otherwise be lying in the street.
比如曼哈頓名為百老匯或西街走廊的小街區(qū)上，昆蟲每年能消耗掉相當(dāng)于6萬個熱狗的垃圾，若非昆蟲街頭可能滿是垃圾。
And that's assuming the bugs stop chowing down in winter.
而這還是假設(shè)昆蟲冬天會不再進食的情況。
To assess how much discarded food bugs got rid of, the researchers placed measured amounts of hot dogs, potato chips and cookies at 21 park sites and 24 street medians.
為了弄清楚昆蟲清理多少垃圾，研究人員們在21家公園和24條街道上安置了算好量的熱狗、薯片和餅干。
Contrary to their prediction, location played an even bigger role in garbage consumption than biodiversity did—insects gobbled up two to three times more food in the street medians than they did in the parks.
而與研究人員預(yù)期大相徑庭的是，地域性比生物多樣性在垃圾消耗方面扮演了更為重要的角色—昆蟲們在街道中清理垃圾的量是公園的2至3倍。
The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology.
這項研究已經(jīng)在《環(huán)球生物學(xué)變革》雜志上發(fā)表。
If all that garbage disposal still does not make you an arthropod admirer, then consider this: by competing with larger pests for resources, insects help keep rat populations down.
如果昆蟲大快朵頤垃圾的舉動還不能讓你充滿感激，那換個角度想想：通過與較大的個體爭奪資源，昆蟲還幫助我們減少了老鼠的數(shù)量。
There's some food for thought.
這是值得深思的事情。
