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What was the most difficult job you ever did?
你曾经做过的最难的工作是什么？
Was it working in the sun? Was it working to provide food for a family or a community?
是曾在大太阳底下工作？是给家庭或者整个社区提供餐饮？
Was it working days and nights trying to protect lives and property?
是要昼夜不分地保护生命和财产？
Was it working alone or working on a project that wasn't guaranteed to succeed,
是你曾独自一人工作？还是你在一个前途未卜的项目中，
but that might improve human health or save a life?
但却可以改善人类健康或者救死扶伤？
Was it working to build something, create something, make a work of art?
这份工作是不是去建造，去创新，打造一个艺术作品？
Was it work for which you were never sure you were fully understood or appreciated?
这份工作是不是让你觉得不确定自己是否会被人们所理解和感激？
The people in our communities who do these jobs deserve our attention, our love and our deepest support.
那些在我们社会里，正做着上述工作的人们，理应受到我们的关注，关爱和切实的支持。
But people aren't the only ones in our communities who do these difficult jobs.
但是人类并不是我们社会里唯一从事困难工作的群体。
These jobs are also done by the plants, the animals and the ecosystems on our planet,
还有很多其他工作是植物，动物和地球上生态系统在做的。
including the ecosystems I study: the tropical coral reefs.
这之中的生态系统就包括了我所研究的：热带珊瑚礁。
Coral reefs are farmers.
珊瑚礁是辛勤的农民。
They provide food, income and food security for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
它们提供食物，收入和食物安全性给全世界数亿的人们。
Coral reefs are security guards.
珊瑚礁是安全卫士。
The structures that they build protect our shorelines from storm surge and waves,
它们打造的结构保护了我们的海岸线不受风暴潮和海浪的侵袭，
and the biological systems that they house filter the water and make it safer for us to work and play.
而且这种生态系统能过滤海水，让我们能安全地在水里工作和玩耍。
Coral reefs are chemists.
珊瑚礁是药剂师。
The molecules that we're discovering on coral reefs are increasingly important in the search for new antibiotics and new cancer drugs.
珊瑚礁上发现的分子对研究新的抗生素和癌症治疗药物非常重要。
And coral reefs are artists.
珊瑚礁还是艺术家。
The structures that they build are some of the most beautiful things on planet Earth.
它们创造的这种结构是地球上最漂亮的景致之一。
And this beauty is the foundation of the tourism industry in many countries with few or little other natural resources.
这种美丽是旅游业的基础，特别是对于很多没有其他自然资源的国家来说。
So for all of these reasons, all of these ecosystem services,
那么针对这么多有利的原因和生态系统的服务，
economists estimate the value of the world's coral reefs in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
经济学家估算了这种珊瑚礁的价值，每年可以达到几千亿。
And yet despite all that hard work being done for us and all that wealth that we gain,
尽管珊瑚礁为我们做了所有这些艰辛的工作，尽管我们获得了所有的财富，
we have done almost everything we possibly could to destroy that.
我们却已经几乎不遗余力地破坏了它们。
We have taken the fish out of the oceans and we have added in fertilizer, sewage, diseases, oil, pollution, sediments.
我们从海洋里获取鱼类，与此同时，我们加入了肥料和废水，以及疾病，石油，污染物，还有沉积物。
We have trampled the reefs physically with our boats, our fins, our bulldozers,
我们的船舶，船舵和推土机已经践踏了珊瑚礁，
and we have changed the chemistry of the entire sea, warmed the waters and made storms worse.
我们已经改变了整个海洋的化学结构，导致海水温度升高，风暴变得更加猛烈。
And these would all be bad on their own,
这其中的每一项本身就是有害的，
but these threats magnify each other and compound one another and make each other worse.
而它们还会相互作用，彼此强化，让各个因素的负面效果愈演愈烈。
I'll give you an example. Where I live and work, in Curacao, a tropical storm went by a few years ago.
我给你们举个例子。Curacao是我生活工作的地方，这里几年前被一个热带风暴侵袭过。
And on the eastern end of the island, where the reefs are intact and thriving,
在岛的最东端，珊瑚们保存完好，生长得很繁茂，
you could barely tell a tropical storm had passed.
你很难相信一个热带风暴潮刚刚经过这里。
But in town, where corals had died from overfishing, from pollution,
但是在城镇中心，那里的珊瑚早已死于过度捕鱼和污染，
the tropical storm picked up the dead corals and used them as bludgeons to kill the corals that were left.
热带风暴潮夹带起死去的珊瑚，用它们撞击并消灭了其他活着的珊瑚。
This is a coral that I studied during my PhD -- I got to know it quite well.
这是一种我在读博士期间研究过的珊瑚，我很了解它。
And after this storm took off half of its tissue,
在风暴潮过后，它只剩了半边组织，
it became infested with algae, the algae overgrew the tissue and that coral died.
它开始被海藻侵蚀，海藻在珊瑚身上过度生长，然后珊瑚就死了。
This magnification of threats, this compounding of factors is what Jeremy Jackson describes as the "slippery slope to slime."
这样的巨大威胁，这种混合因素，正是Jeremy Jackson描述的那样"滑向烂泥深渊的斜坡。"
It's hardly even a metaphor because many of our reefs now are literally bacteria and algae and slime.
这可能都不是只是个隐喻了，因为很多礁石都是由细菌，海草和烂泥组成的了。
Now, this is the part of the talk where you may expect me to launch into my plea for us to all save the coral reefs.
现在你们可能觉得我马上就要开始提出关于保护珊瑚礁的倡议了。
But I have a confession to make: that phrase drives me nuts.
但是我必须要承认：保护珊瑚礁这词让我很受不了。
Whether I see it in a tweet, in a news headline or the glossy pages of a conservation brochure, that phrase bothers me,
无论我在微博，报纸头条，或是设计精美的环保宣传册上看到，那些辞藻都让我觉得很反感，
because we as conservationists have been sounding the alarms about the death of coral reefs for decades.
因为我们这些自然环境保护者几十年来一直在散播关于珊瑚礁死亡的警告。
And yet, almost everyone I meet, no matter how educated, is not sure what a coral is or where they come from.
但是现在，几乎我遇到的所有人，无论他们受教育程度如何，居然都不知道什么是珊瑚，或不知道它们从哪里来。
How would we get someone to care about the world's coral reefs when it's an abstract thing they can barely understand?
那么我们要如何让人们来关心世界上的珊瑚礁呢？对大众来说它们只是抽象的词汇，又怎么会被人们所了解呢？
If they don't understand what a coral is or where it comes from,
如果大众不知道珊瑚是什么，从何而来，
or how funny or interesting or beautiful it is, why would we expect them to care about saving them?
或者它们多么有意思，亦或不知道它们有多美丽，那为什么我们要期待大众去保护它们呢？
So let's change that. What is a coral and where does it come from?
那么，我们要改变一下现状了。什么是珊瑚，它们从哪来？
Corals are born in a number of different ways, but most often by mass spawning:
珊瑚可以通过很多种方式诞生，但通常是通过大量产卵：
all of the individuals of a single species on one night a year,
所有这些同一类的珊瑚虫个体在每年的一个晚上，
releasing all the eggs they've made that year into the water column, packaged into bundles with sperm cells.
释放它们当年产的所有卵到水柱中去，并和精子细胞打包在一起。
And those bundles go to the surface of the ocean and break apart.
那些卵包到了海面，散开。
And hopefully -- hopefully -- at the surface of the ocean, they meet the eggs and sperm from other corals.
之后在海面上，咱们只能是希望，它们可能遇到了其他珊瑚虫的卵子和精子。
And that is why you need lots of corals on a coral reef
而这就是为什么一个珊瑚礁上需要大量的珊瑚虫
so that all of their eggs can meet their match at the surface.
这样它们所有的卵才能在海面上找到精子。
When they're fertilized, they do what any other animal egg does: divides in half again and again and again.
当这些卵受精后，它们就像其他动物的卵一样：一遍又一遍地分裂。
Taking these photos under the microscope every year is one of my favorite and most magical moments of the year.
在显微镜下拍到这些照片，成为了我每年最喜欢的，最神奇的时刻之一。
At the end of all this cell division, they turn into a swimming larva
在所有这些细胞分裂结束后，它们变成了游动的幼虫
a little tiny blob of fat the size of a poppy seed, but with all of the sensory systems that we have.
小小的一团，肥的像个罂粟种子，但已经具备我们人类所有的感觉系统了。
They can sense color and light, textures, chemicals, pH. They can even feel pressure waves; they can hear sound.
它们可以感知颜色和光，材质，化学物质和酸碱值。它们甚至可以感觉到压力波；可以听到声音。
And they use those talents to search the bottom of the reef for a place to attach and live the rest of their lives.
而且它们可以用这些天份，去寻找珊瑚礁的底端附着上去，并在珊瑚礁上度过它们的余生。
So imagine finding a place where you would live the rest of your life when you were just two days old.
那么想像下找到一个地方去度过你们的余生，而当时你只诞生了两天。
They attach in the place they find most suitable, they build a skeleton underneath themselves,
它们附着在它们觉得最适合的地方，在自己身体下面创造支架，
they build a mouth and tentacles, and then they begin the difficult work of building the world's coral reefs.
一起建造一张嘴和很多触手，然后就开始了艰难的工作，去建造全世界的珊瑚礁。
One coral polyp will divide itself again and again and again,
一只珊瑚虫将自己分裂一次又一次，
leaving a limestone skeleton underneath itself and growing up toward the sun.
在其腹下产生一个石灰岩的骨架，然后朝着太阳的方向的生长。
Given hundreds of years and many species,
数百年之后，万物纵生，
what you get is a massive limestone structure that can be seen from space in many cases,
一个巨大的石灰结构形成了，在太空上都能从很多地方看到，
covered by a thin skin of these hardworking animals.
表面还覆盖着薄薄的一层这些辛勤工作的珊瑚虫。
Now, there are only a few hundred species of corals on the planet, maybe 1,000.
现在，仅有几百种珊瑚存于世间，也可能1000种。
But these systems house millions and millions of other species,
但是这种珊瑚的石灰结构却是亿万其他生物的栖息地，
and that diversity is what stabilizes the systems, and it's where we're finding our new medicines.
而其多样性造就了这个生态系统的稳定性，也让我们找到了新型的药物。
It's how we find new sources of food.
我们在其中还找到了新的食物来源。
I'm lucky enough to work on the island of Curacao, where we still have reefs that look like this.
我很幸运能在Curacao岛上工作，在那里我们仍能找到像这样的珊瑚礁。
But, indeed, much of the Caribbean and much of our world is much more like this.
但是，事实上在加勒比海和世界上大多数地方，却是这般光景。
Scientists have studied in increasing detail the loss of the world's coral reefs,
科学家们更深入地研究了这种退化的本质原因，
and they have documented with increasing certainty the causes.
他们已经记录了不断被确定的原因。
But in my research, I'm not interested in looking backward.
但是在我的研究中，我对过去不感兴趣。
My colleagues and I in Curacao are interested in looking forward at what might be.
我和我同事在Curacao岛上对将来可能会发生什么很感兴趣。
And we have the tiniest reason to be optimistic.
我们只能用最微不足道的原因去保持乐观。
Because even in some of these reefs that we probably could have written off long ago,
因为即使在某些我们早就不抱希望的珊瑚礁中，
we sometimes see baby corals arrive and survive anyway.
我们有时仍会看到珊瑚虫的幼虫到达这里，并挣扎生存下来。
And we're starting to think that baby corals may have the ability to adjust to some of the conditions that the adults couldn't.
随后，我们开始思考，这些小珊瑚虫们可能有某种能力去适应一些成年珊瑚虫可能适应不了的地方。
They may be able to adjust ever so slightly more readily to this human planet.
它们可能可以调整自身去不断适应这个被人类占领的星球。
So in the research I do with my colleagues in Curacao,
所以在Curacao的研究中，
we try to figure out what a baby coral needs in that critical early stage,
我和同事们努力去找出小珊瑚虫生长需要的因素，特别是在关键的早期生长过程中，
what it's looking for and how we can try to help it through that process.
这些小珊瑚虫到底在找些什么，以及我们怎么才能帮助它们渡过这些难关。
I'm going to show you three examples of the work we've done to try to answer those questions.
我将向你们展示我们工作中的三个例子，并以此来解答我刚提出的那些困惑。
A few years ago we took a 3D printer and we made coral choice surveys -- different colors and different textures,
在几年以前，我们用3D打印设备，进行了珊瑚选择鉴定研究，给出不同颜色和材质的环境，
and we simply asked the coral where they preferred to settle.
我们简单地观察珊瑚虫，想知道哪些环境是它们最喜欢的。
And we found that corals, even without the biology involved,
之后我们发现珊瑚虫甚至在没有任何生物手段干预的情况下，
still prefer white and pink, the colors of a healthy reef.
仍然选择了白色和粉红，代表着健康礁石。
And they prefer crevices and grooves and holes,
它们喜欢裂缝，凹槽，还有洞，
where they will be safe from being trampled or eaten by a predator.
在那些地方它们可以免受外界侵扰，也不会被捕食者吃掉。
So we can use this knowledge, we can go back and say we need to restore those factors
所以我们可以用这些知识，回到实验室，提出我们需要重构这些因素
that pink, that white, those crevices, those hard surfaces -- in our conservation projects.
粉红的，白色的，有裂缝的，坚硬的表面--列入到我们的保护项目之中。
We can also use that knowledge if we're going to put something underwater, like a sea wall or a pier.
我们也能把这些知识，运用到建造海底墙体和码头上，把合适的材料放在水下。
We can choose to use the materials and colors and textures that might bias the system back toward those corals.
我们可以选择用这些材料、颜色、纹路，让整个生态系统有利于珊瑚虫的生存。
Now in addition to the surfaces, we also study the chemical and microbial signals that attract corals to reefs.
除了研究合适的表面，我们也研究了可以吸引珊瑚虫附着在礁石上的化学和微生物因素。
Starting about six years ago, I began culturing bacteria from surfaces where corals had settled.
大约六年前，我就开始培养珊瑚礁表面有珊瑚栖息的区域的细菌。
And I tried those one by one by one, looking for the bacteria that would convince corals to settle and attach.
我一个一个地试，想要找到那些能诱导珊瑚虫聚集吸附的细菌种类。
And we now have many bacterial strains in our freezer
现在我们有很多细菌株在冷冻柜里，
that will reliably cause corals to go through that settlement and attachment process.
这些细菌是珊瑚虫信赖的，愿意去附着和生长的菌类。
So as we speak, my colleagues in Curacao are testing those bacteria to see
就在演讲的这段时间里，我的同事们正在Curacao测试那些细菌，
if they'll help us raise more coral settlers in the lab,
去研究它们是否能帮助我们在实验室建造珊瑚的栖息地，
and to see if those coral settlers will survive better when we put them back underwater.
以及这些有珊瑚附着的结构能够在海水中更好地生存。
Now in addition to these tools, we also try to uncover the mysteries of species that are under-studied.
除了这些工具，我们也在努力解开不为我们所熟知的物种的秘密。
This is one of my favorite corals, and always has been: dendrogyra cylindrus, the pillar coral.
这是其中我最喜欢的珊瑚中的一种，一直都是：系统柱状的，柱状珊瑚。
I love it because it makes this ridiculous shape,
我喜欢它，因为它有着无与伦比的形状，
because its tentacles are fat and look fuzzy and because it's rare.
因为它的触须胖嘟嘟，看起来毛茸茸，还因为它很稀有。
Finding one of these on a reef is a treat.
能找到这样一种珊瑚绝对是一种慰藉。
In fact, it's so rare, that last year it was listed as a threatened species on the endangered species list.
实际上，它是真的太稀有了，以至于它去年被认为是濒危物种，出现在了濒危物种列表上。
And this was in part because in over 30 years of research surveys, scientists had never found a baby pillar coral.
这不难理解，因为在过去30年的研究中，科学家从未发现过一只幼年柱形珊瑚虫。
We weren't even sure if they could still reproduce, or if they were still reproducing.
我们之前都无法确信它是否还可以继续繁衍，或者当时是否还在繁殖。
So four years ago, we started following these at night and watching to see if we could figure out when they spawn in Curacao.
所以四年前，我们开始在夜间观察，看它们什么时候会在Curacao产卵。
We got some good tips from our colleagues in Florida, who had seen one in 2007, one in 2008,
我们从佛罗里达的同事那里得到了一些好的建议，他们在2007年和2008年分别看到了一只柱状珊瑚，
and eventually we figured out when they spawn in Curacao and we caught it.
终于我们发现了它们在Curacao产卵的时间，我们捕捉到了这个时刻。
Here's a female on the left with some eggs in her tissue, about to release them into the seawater.
左边是一只母珊瑚虫和一些卵，正要把这些卵释放到海水中。
And here's a male on the right, releasing sperm.
而右边是一只公的珊瑚虫在释放精子。
We collected this, we got it back to the lab,
我们收集了这些卵子和精子，带回实验室进行培育，
we got it to fertilize and we got baby pillar corals swimming in our lab.
于是就有了柱状珊瑚虫在我们实验室里里游来游去。
Thanks to the work of our scientific aunts and uncles,
感谢我们的科学界的前辈们，
and thanks to the 10 years of practice we've had in Curacao at raising other coral species,
也要感谢我们在Curacao岛上十年培育其他珊瑚虫种类的经验，
we got some of those larvae to go through the rest of the process and settle and attach, and turn into metamorphosed corals.
我们有了一些珊瑚幼虫可以完成余下的步骤，让它们在礁石上附着和生存下来，并形成变质珊瑚礁。
So this is the first pillar coral baby that anyone ever saw.
这是所有人见过的第一只年幼的柱状珊瑚虫。
And I have to say -- if you think baby pandas are cute, this is cuter.
我不得不说--如果你们认为熊猫宝宝很可爱，那这些小珊瑚虫更可爱。
So we're starting to figure out the secrets to this process,
我们正在研究珊瑚繁殖过程的秘密，
the secrets of coral reproduction and how we might help them.
我们要找出如何帮助它们繁殖。
And this is true all around the world; scientists are figuring out new ways to handle their embryos,
全世界都面临着同样的情况；科学家们正在找出新的方法去处理珊瑚虫的胚胎，
to get them to settle, maybe even figuring out the methods to preserve them at low temperatures,
让它们栖息生长，甚至在想办法让它们能够在低温下生长，
so that we can preserve their genetic diversity and work with them more often.
这样我们就可以保护它们的基因多样性，并且有更多机会对它们进行研究。
But this is still so low-tech. We are limited by the space on our bench,
但是这个过程的技术含量太低了。我们实验室的空间有限，
the number of hands in the lab and the number of coffees we can drink in any given hour.
人手也不够，连休息时间提供的咖啡都少得可怜。
Now, compare that to our other crises and our other areas of concern as a society.
现在，与我们人类遇到的其他危机，以及其他社会问题比较一下。
We have advanced medical technology, we have defense technology,
我们有先进的医疗技术，防御技术，
we have scientific technology, we even have advanced technology for art.
我们也有科学手段，甚至还有先进的艺术科技。
But our technology for conservation is behind. Think back to the most difficult job you ever did.
但是我们的环保技术却远远落后了。想想你们做过的最艰难的工作。
Many of you would say it was being a parent.
你们很多人肯定会说是为人父母。
My mother described being a parent as something that makes your life far more amazing
我的妈妈描述了为人父母，会让自己的生命更加精彩，
and far more difficult than you could've ever possibly imagined.
也更加艰辛，相比任何所能想象的工作。
I've been trying to help corals become parents for over 10 years now.
我已经从事让珊瑚虫们做父母这项工作超过十年了。
And watching the wonder of life has certainly filled me with amazement to the core of my soul.
见证这些生命的奇迹，让我的内心十分充实，在灵魂深处也惊叹不已。
But I've also seen how difficult it is for them to become parents.
但是我看到了珊瑚虫们想成为父母有多么困难。
The pillar corals spawned again two weeks ago, and we collected their eggs and brought them back to the lab.
那些柱状珊瑚虫两周前在此产卵，我们取了它们的卵，并带回了实验室。
And here you see one embryo dividing, alongside 14 eggs that didn't fertilize and will blow up.
这里你们可以看到一个胚胎在分裂，马上就会炸裂开，而旁边其他的14个卵还没有任何分裂迹象。
They'll be infected with bacteria,
这些珊瑚虫卵会被细菌感染，
they will explode and those bacteria will threaten the life of this one embryo that has a chance.
爆裂开来，而这些细菌也会侵害那只能够分裂的胚胎。
We don't know if it was our handling methods that went wrong
我们不知道是我们的处理过程有问题，
and we don't know if it was just this coral on this reef, always suffering from low fertility.
还是只有这种珊瑚虫在礁石上繁育率一直很低。
Whatever the cause, we have much more work to do before we can use baby corals to grow or fix or, yes, maybe save coral reefs.
无论这种低产率的原因是什么，在我们能用这些珊瑚虫去培育、修复、或者保护珊瑚礁之前，我们还有更多的工作要做。
So never mind that they're worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
不要在意它们是否价值连城。
Coral reefs are hardworking animals and plants and microbes and fungi.
珊瑚礁由是辛勤工作的动植物和细菌组成的。
They're providing us with art and food and medicine.
它们给予了我们艺术，食物和药物。
And we almost took out an entire generation of corals.
我们几乎毁掉了整整一代的珊瑚。
But a few made it anyway, despite our best efforts,
但是仍有一些幸存了下来尽管我们一直在不遗余力地破坏着，
and now it's time for us to thank them for the work they did
所以现在我们应该去感谢这些物种，
and give them every chance they have to raise the coral reefs of the future, their coral babies. Thank you so much.
并且给予它们所有能在未来长成珊瑚礁的机会，保护珊瑚幼虫。非常感谢你们。
