Warming Alters Arctic Food Chain From the Bottom Up
暖化改變北極食物鏈 結果未知
By Carl Zimmer

The Arctic Ocean may seem remote and forbidding, but to birds, whales and other animals, it’s a top-notch dining destination.
北極海或許顯得遙遠又難以親近，但對鳥類、鯨魚和一些其他動物來說，可是頂級的用餐地點。

“It’s a great place to get food in the summertime, so animals are flying or swimming thousands of miles to get there,” said Kevin R. Arrigo, a biological oceanographer at Stanford University.
史丹福大學生物海洋學家凱文．阿里戈說：「北極海是夏天捕食很棒的地方，因此，各種動物從幾千英里外飛來或游來。」

But the menu is changing. Confirming earlier research, scientists reported Wednesday that global warming is altering the ecology of the Arctic Ocean on a huge scale.
但菜單正在改變。科學家周三提出的報告證實了先前研究的結論，全球暖化正極大規模的改變北極海的生態。

The annual production of algae, the base of the food web, increased an estimated 47 percent between 1997 and 2015, and the ocean is greening up much earlier each year.
藻類是食物網的基底，在1997年到2015年之間每年產量大約增加了47%，而北極海的綠化也每一年都比前一年提早許多。

These changes are likely to have a profound impact for animals further up the food chain, such as birds, seals, polar bears and whales. But scientists still don’t know enough about the biology of the Arctic Ocean to predict what the ecosystem will look like in decades to come.
這些改變可能對食物鏈更上層的動物有更深遠的影響，例如鳥類、海豹、北極熊和鯨魚。然而，科學家對北極海生物學的知識仍不足以預測未來幾十年當地生態系統的樣貌。

While global warming has affected the whole planet in recent decades, nowhere has been hit harder than the Arctic. Last month, temperatures in the high Arctic were as much as 36 degrees above average, according to records kept by the Danish Meteorological Institute.
全球暖化近幾十年已影響整個地球，然而沒有一個地方比北極所受影響更大。根據丹麥氣象研究所的紀錄，上個月，高北極的氣溫最高時要比平均溫度高出華氏36度。

In October, the extent of sea ice was 28.5 percent below average – the lowest for the month since scientists began keeping records in 1979. The area of missing ice is the size of Alaska and Texas put together.
10月間，海冰的範圍比平均值縮小了28.5%，是自1979年科學家開始記錄以來海冰面積最小的10月。減少的海冰面積相當於阿拉斯加州和德州的總和。

Since the mid-2000s, researchers like Arrigo have been trying to assess the effects of retreating ice on the Arctic ecosystem.
自2000年代中葉以來，阿里戈之屬研究人員一直試圖評估海冰消退對北極生態的影響。

The sun returns to the Arctic each spring and melts some of the ice that formed in winter. Algae in the open water quickly spring to life and start growing.
每年春天太陽回到北極，使得一部分冬天形成的冰融化。開放水域的藻類緊跟著恢復生機，開始生長。

These algae are the base of the food chain in the Arctic Ocean, grazed by krill and other invertebrates that in turn support bigger fish, mammals and birds.
這些藻類是北極海食物鏈的最底層，磷蝦和其他無脊椎動物以它為食物，而這些動物又成為更大的魚、哺乳動物和鳥類的食物。

Arrigo and his colleagues visited the Arctic in research ships to examine algae in the water and to determine how it affected the water’s color. They then reviewed satellite images of the Arctic Ocean, relying on the color of the water to estimate how much algae was growing — what scientists call the ocean’s productivity.
阿里戈和他的同事搭乘研究船造訪北極，研究海中的藻類，並判定藻類如何影響海水的顏色。然後他們再檢視北極海的衛星畫面，根據海水的顏色估計藻類生長的量－科學家稱之為北極海的生產力。

The sea’s productivity was rapidly increasing, Arrigo found. Last year he and his colleagues published their latest update, estimating that the productivity of the Arctic rose 30 percent between 1998 and 2012.
阿里戈發現，北極海的生產力快速增加。去年他和他的同事發表他們最新的更新報告，估計北極海的生產力在1998年到2012年間提高30%。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/science/global-warming-alters-arctic-food-chain.html

2016-12-18．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 田思怡譯

說文解字看新聞 田思怡

全球暖化現象在北極最明顯，氣溫升高（Temperatures in the Arctic have been rising.）、海冰消退（The Arctic sea ice has been retreating.），本文提出另一變化：藻類生長茂盛（Algae thrives in the Arctic Ocean.）。

藻類是北極海食物鏈最底層，科學家目前還不知道藻類變多對北極海生態系統的影響。

最近有一些關於北極暖化的大新聞，首先是今秋北極超熱（This fall, the Arctic is super-hot.）溫度比正常高出攝氏20度（Arctic temperatures have been 20 degrees Celsius higher than normal.）

海冰的範圍創下最小紀錄（The extent of sea ice is at a record low.）

另一大新聞是因為海冰縮小，未來35年北極熊的數量可能減少30%以上，因為北極熊靠海冰生存，牠們把海冰當成獵捕海豹的浮動平台（Polar bears depend on sea ice for their survival. They use it as a floating platform to hunt seals.）

A Wrenching Choice for Alaska Towns in the Path of Climate Change
氣候變遷 阿拉斯加城鎮面臨搬遷抉擇
BY Erica Goode

In the dream, a storm came and Betsy Bekoalok watched the river rise on one side of the village and the ocean on the other, the water swallowing up the brightly colored houses, the fishing boats and the four-wheelers, the school and the clinic.
在夢中，一場暴風雨來襲，貝西．畢可洛克看見村莊一旁的河水上漲，另一旁的海水也一樣，大水吞沒了色彩鮮艷的房屋、漁船、汽車、學校及診所。

She dived into the floodwaters, frantically searching for her son. Bodies drifted past her in the half-darkness. When she finally found the boy, he, too, was lifeless.
她潛入洪水慌亂地尋找她的兒子，在半黑暗中，有些屍體漂過她的身旁。當她終於找到那個男孩時，男孩已死。

“I picked him up and brought him back from the ocean’s bottom,” Bekoalok remembered.
畢可洛克女士回憶道：「我抱起他，把他從海底帶回來。」

The Inupiat people – who for centuries have hunted and fished on Alaska’s western coast – believe that some dreams are portents of things to come.
因紐特人數百年來在阿拉斯加西部海岸狩獵與捕魚，認為有些夢境預示將要到來的事。

But here in Shaktoolik, one need not be a prophet to predict flooding, especially during the fall storms.
但在沙克圖利克這裡，尤其是在秋季暴風雨期間，即使不是先知也能預知洪水會來。

Laid out on a narrow spit of sand between the Tagoomenik River and the Bering Sea, the village of 250 or so people is facing an imminent threat from increased flooding and erosion, signs of a changing climate.
這個村莊約有250人，位於塔谷美尼克河與白令海之間一片狹窄沙灘上，正面臨洪水與侵蝕增加所帶來的迫切威脅，而此二者皆為氣候變遷的跡象。

With its proximity to the Arctic, Alaska is warming about twice as fast as the rest of the United States, and the state is heading for the warmest year on record. The government has identified at least 31 Alaskan towns and cities at imminent risk of destruction, with Shaktoolik ranking among the top four. Some villages, climate change experts predict, will be uninhabitable by 2050, their residents joining a flow of climate refugees around the globe, in Bolivia, China, Niger and other countries.
由於靠近北極，阿拉斯加暖化的速度約比美國其他地區快了一倍，且今年很可能成為該州有紀錄以來最熱的一年。政府已指出至少有31個阿拉斯加城鎮處於即將毀滅的風險之中，而沙克圖利克排在前四名。氣候變遷專家預測，一些村莊將在2050年之前變得不宜居住，這些村莊的居民將與玻利維亞、中國大陸、尼日和一些其他國家的氣候難民一樣，也成為全球氣候難民潮的一分子。

These endangered Alaskan communities face a choice. They could move to higher ground, a wrenching prospect that, for a small village, could cost as much as $200 million. Or they could stand their ground and hope to find money to fortify their buildings and shore up their coastline.
這些瀕危的阿拉斯加社區面臨一項抉擇。他們可以搬到更高的地方，對一個小村莊來說，這是個極為痛苦的前景，因為花費可能高達2億美元。或者他們可以堅守陣地，希望能找到資金來鞏固他們的建築物跟墊高海岸。

At least two villages farther up the western coast, Shishmaref and Kivalina, have voted to relocate when and if they can find a suitable site and the money to do so. A third, Newtok, in the soggy Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta farther south, has taken the first steps toward a move.
西部海岸至少有兩個更靠北的村莊─希什馬瑞夫和基瓦里納，已經投票決定若能找到合適地點與所需經費，就會搬遷，而在西岸更南方潮濕的育空-柯斯科克溫三角洲上的紐托克，則已展開搬遷的初步行動。

But, after years of meetings that led nowhere and pleas for government financing that remained unmet, Shaktoolik has decided it will “stay and defend,” at least for the time being, the mayor, Eugene Asicksik, said.
然而，沙克圖利克市長尤金．阿希西克表示，多年來開會一無所獲，融資請求也未獲政府回應，沙克圖利克已決定至少目前會「留下來捍衛自己」。

“We are doing things on our own,” he said.
他說：「我們正靠自己的力量做事情。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/science/alaska-global-warming.html

2016-12-18．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 陳韋廷譯