Massive Survey Creates Amazon Tree Census

亚马逊丛林的树木普查

A tree survey in the Amazon by more than 150 researchers led to an estimate that up to 57 percent of Amazon trees could qualify for threatened species status by 2050

150多名研究人员参与了一项关于亚马逊丛林树木的调查。据该项目估计，多达57%的亚马逊丛林的树木在2050年成为濒危物种。

撰文/播音 辛西娅·格雷伯（Cynthia Graber）

翻译 M

审核：邰伦玥

Some 12 percent of the forests of the Amazonhave been lost in recorded history. Another 9 to 28 percent will be gone by 2050. But we have not known which species of trees are taking the biggest hits. In part because it's so difficult to do the fieldwork involved in species surveys.

在记录在案的历史中，大约12%的亚马逊林木遭受到破坏。到2050年，额外会有9到28%的树木消失。然而我们不知道哪些树木物种会受到最大的破坏。一部分原因是由于关于物种调查的实地考察过于困难。

Now, in a massive effort, a team of more than 158 researchers studied 1,200 plots of trees in the Amazon. They estimated the effects of deforestation on 5,000 species and modeled the impact of deforestation on some 10,000 more.

现在，研究人员在此项研究主题上花了很多心血。由158多名研究人员组成的小组将把亚马逊丛林划分为1200个区域，并对其中的树木进行调查。他们估计出了森林砍伐对5000个物种的影响，并用模型显示了森林砍伐对10000多个物种的波及。

"With the business as usual scenario, roughly half of the Amazon will be deforested in 2050, leading to similar losses in mean species abundances." Hans terSteege of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, one of the study participants.

“如果一切如常，差不多一半的亚马逊丛林将在2050年被砍伐，导致平均物种多样性的相应减少。”该项研究的参与者之一，来自荷兰乌得勒支大学的汉斯·特·斯特格如是说。

The findings mean that 36 to 57 percent of Amazon trees could qualify for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's red list of threatened species, including the commercially valuable Brazil Nut and Cacao.

这项发现意味着36%到57%的亚马逊林木将被纳入国际自然保护联盟红色名录，这其中包含了具有经济价值的巴西坚果与可可。

Nigel Pittman of Chicago's Field Museum also worked on the study. "If we were to put on the red list all of these Amazonian trees that aren't currently listed but probably deserve to be, that would increase the total number of threatened species on earth by about a quarter, about 22 percent." The research is in the journal Science Advances. [Hans terSteege et al, Estimating the global conservation status of over 15,000 Amazonian tree species]

来自芝加哥菲尔德博物馆的奈杰尔·皮特曼同样参与了该项目。“如果我们将这些现在不存在于、但很有可能进入频危名录的树木计入目录的话，地球上的频危物种总数将增加四分之一，增加了22%。”该研究发表在《科学进展》上。

But there is some good news. Government actions could slow the rate of deforestation. Also, deforestation has decreased in recent years. And half of Amazonian forests already lie in protected areas.

然而其中还是有一些好消息。政府的行为将减慢砍伐的速度。同时，砍伐在近些年内有所减少。并且，一半的亚马逊丛林已经被划入保护区中。

terSteege: "Thus, if we can protect these areas from threats they face, such as fires, degradation, deforestation, large-scale damage, and mining, the Amazon could be a showcase of large-scale conservation worldwide."

特·斯特格说：“因此，如果我们能保护亚马逊免受森林火灾、土地退化、树木砍伐、大规模开荒与矿物挖掘等的威胁，那么它将成为全球大规模环境保护的一个好的示范。”