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Science and technology
科學技術
Marine ecology
海洋生態學
Welcome to the plastisphere
歡迎來到塑料圈
What is pollution to some is opportunity to others
對有些生物是污染物的塑料對另一些生物卻是機會
SINCE 2008 geologists have been mulling over the idea of the Anthropocene,
自2008年起，地質學家便一直在琢磨人類世這個概念。
a proposed new epoch in the history of the Earth that would encompass the years in which people have had profound effects on the planet's workings.
人類世是新近提出的一個地球紀元，囊括了人類的改造對地球產生深刻影響的時期。
Most often, discussion of the Anthropocene revolves around how atmospheric chemistry has changed since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
大多時候，對人類世的探討以工業革命開始后大氣的化學性質如何變化為主。
Sometimes the effects of new terrestrial ecosystems, in the form of fields, pastures and plantations, are also considered.
間或還會考慮對田地，牧場及種植園等形式的新型陸地生態系統產生的影像。
To date, though, how the Anthropocene has created new ecosystems in the oceans as well as on land has not been much examined.
然而人類世是如何與在陸地上一樣在海洋中創造新生態系統的問題迄今為止還未有深入研究。
Such ecosystems are, nevertheless, emerging—as Tracy Mincer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Massachusetts, and Linda Amaral-Zettler of the Marine Biological Laboratory, also in Woods Hole, describe in Environmental Science and Technology.
然而正如馬薩諸塞州的伍茲霍爾海洋學研究所的特雷西·明瑟以及伍茲霍爾海洋生物學實驗室的琳達·阿馬拉爾-賽特勒在《環境科學技術》上所說的，這類生態系統正在慢慢浮出水面。
The malign effect of floating plastic debris on seabirds, turtles and other sea creatures is well known.
漂浮在海洋中的碎片對于海鳥，海龜以及其它海洋生物的有害作用已經廣為人知。
But, as Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler have discovered, plastic debris also provides a new habitat for organisms small enough to take advantage of it.
但是，明瑟和阿馬拉爾-賽特勒兩位博士發現，塑料碎片還為小到足以棲身其上的微生物提供了一塊新的棲息地。
The two researchers collected pieces of plastic from various sites in the North Atlantic.
這兩位研究人員在北大西洋上的多個區域搜集了許多塑料片。
They then examined each using DNA analysis, and also an electron microscope, to see what was living on it.
然后使用DNA分析及電子顯微鏡對每一塊碎片進行了檢測，來觀查上面有什么生物。
Lots of things were. Altogether, they discovered about 50 species of single-celled plant, animal and bacterial life.
上面確實有很多生物，他們一共發現了大約50種單細胞植物，動物及細菌生命體。
Each bit of debris was, in effect, a tiny ecosystem.
實際上，每塊碎片都是一個微型生態系統。
As with many ecosystems, the bottom of the food chain was occupied by things that photosynthesise.
與許多生態系統一樣，位于生物鏈底層的是進行光合作用的生物，
These included unicellular algae called diatoms and dinoflagellates, and photosynthetic bacteria known as cyanobacteria.
包括叫做硅藻及鞭毛藻的單細胞藻類以及被稱為藍藻細菌的光合細菌。
Usually, such creatures swim freely in the ocean.
通常情況下，這些生物在海洋中隨波逐流，
They therefore have to work hard to stay near the surface, where light for photosynthesis is abundant.
然而它們必須努力停留在海面附近，以獲得充足的陽光進行光合作用。
By hitching a ride on a piece of floating plastic, they can stay near the surface without effort.
要是能搭上一塊浮在水面上的塑料片，它們就能毫不費力地停留在海面附近。
Where plants abound, herbivores will not be far behind.
植物豐沛之地，食草動物也不會少。
These, Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found in the form of dinoflagellates, some of which like to snack on smaller creatures to supplement their photosynthesis.
明瑟和阿馬拉爾·賽特勒兩位博士發現的食草動物的形式是鞭毛藻類，其中有些會將更小的生物當成點心，作為自己光合作用外的加餐。
They also found predators on the herbivores, in the form of ciliates and predator bacteria, which feed on other bacteria.
兩位博士還發現了以這些食草動物為食的捕食者，存在形式是纖毛蟲和以其他細菌為食的捕食性細菌。
Except for top predators—the type that themselves prey on predators—the two researchers thus discovered a classic web of food chains of the sort familiar from ecology text books.
要不是沒發現頂層捕食者-捕食其他捕食者的捕食者-兩位研究人員便會發現一張那種經常在生態學教科書中見到的典型食物網。
And they also, and perhaps most pertinently from the human point of view, found evidence for one other part of such a food web: the decomposers.
他們還發現了這種食物網中另一個部分-分解者-的存在跡象，這或許是最為符合人類立場發現。
Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily.
塑料是富含能量的物質，這正是許多塑料都極易燃燒的原因。
Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene.
所有可以將其中的能量取出食用的微生物都能在人類世中過得不錯。
Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
該領域的專家已經對能做到這點的陸生細菌及真菌如數家珍。
Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too.
明瑟和阿馬拉爾·賽特勒兩位博士也在他們的海中塑料上發現了這類微生物的跡象。
They noticed many of their pieces of debris sported surface pits around two microns across.
他們注意到許多自己手上的塑料片表面上都生有許多約兩微米寬的凹點。
Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell.
這種凹點差不多和細菌細胞一樣大。
Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.
進一步的檢測發現這些凹點中有一部分確實含有細菌，并且在一些樣本中，這些細菌還在不斷分裂，按照與算術上的稱法相反的生物學術語來說，即正在增殖。
Though the two researchers have not yet proved the bugs in the pits are actually eating the plastic, that hypothesis seems a good bet.
雖然這兩位研究人員還未證明這些凹點中的細菌確實在以塑料為食，但這一假設似乎頗有成立的可能。
And if they are, it suggests plastic pollution in the ocean may not hang around as long as has often been feared.
如果這些細菌確實以塑料為食，這說明海洋中的塑料污染物有可能并不會像人們通常擔憂的那樣一直在海中飄來蕩去。
Less encouragingly, Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler also found cholera-like bacteria in their tiny floating ecosystems.
遺憾的是，明瑟和阿馬拉爾-賽特勒兩位博士還在他們的微型漂浮生態系統里發現了類霍亂細菌。
Both fish and seabirds act as vectors for cholera, so anywhere that such creatures might pick up cholera bugs is something worth keeping an eye on.
魚和海鳥都會成為霍亂的攜帶者，所以任何可能會讓這類生物帶上霍亂菌的地點都值得密切關注。
The researchers paint an intriguing picture of the adaptability of nature, and provide another piece of the jigsaw that is the Anthropocene.
這兩位研究人員為自然適應性描繪了一幅引人入勝的圖畫，又在人類世的拼圖上添上了一塊。
Conservationists intent on preserving charismatic megafauna have reason to lament the spread of plastics through the ocean.
致力于保護受人喜愛的大型動物的環境保護主義者有理由為塑料在海洋散布而痛心疾首。
But those interested in smaller critters have been given a whole, new sphere—the plastisphere—to study.
但這些塑料卻帶給那些興趣在于微型生物體的人一個全新的生態圈-塑料圈-用于研究。
