評論
打印
You can almost hear the law of unintended consequences at work among the flora and fauna of northwestern New Mexico.
你幾乎不敢相信新墨西哥州西北動植物研究工作帶來意想不到的結(jié)果。
Thousands of natural gas wells dot the landscape there, along with the compressors that get the gaseous fuel ready to travel through pipelines. The compressor rumble is constant, and seems to be attracting black-chinned hummingbirds, according to a new experiment. The findings appeared this week in the journalProceedings of the Royal Society B.
成千上萬的天然氣井點綴在那兒的風(fēng)景中 通過燃料氣體壓縮機而穿越管道輸送。根據(jù)一項新的實驗壓縮機恒定的隆隆聲似乎能吸引一種black-chinned蜂鳥。這些發(fā)現(xiàn)刊登在本周的皇家社會研究月刊。
Researchers set up test flower beds and tracked bird landings. They found that the hummingbirds were five times more likely to visit noisy areas. Why? Perhaps because the western scrub jay tends to avoid noise. And western scrub jays eat baby hummingbirds. The situation is good for wildflowers that are pollinated by the hummingbirds.
研究人員通過建立花圃并跟蹤測試鳥類降落次數(shù)。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)蜂鳥有超過五倍可能性去喧鬧的地區(qū)這是為什么?或許是因為西方矮樹松鴉不喜歡噪音，而西方矮樹松鴉喜歡吃蜂鳥幼鳥。這樣由蜂鳥授粉的野花在鬧市區(qū)開的很好。
But the absence of jays seems to be bad for other plants. For example, the pinon pine relies on scrub jaysto spread its seeds. As a result, pine seedlings were four times less abundant at noisy sites than quiet ones.
但缺乏松鴉似乎對其他植物不利。例如 矮松樹依賴松鴉來傳播種子。結(jié)果 喧鬧地點松幼苗清靜地兒減少四倍。
Pinon seedlings take decades to become pinon pines, a critical habitat for hundreds of species in the western U.S. So the forest of the future may never take root. Darn noisy neighbors.
矮松樹苗要花上幾十年的時間成為松樹 而因為討厭嘈雜的鄰居，在美國西部的森林中作為數(shù)百種關(guān)鍵物種棲息地的矮松樹苗可能永遠不會生根。
