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Earth Day is April 22.
4月22日是地球日。
Every year, people around the world observe the day by helping to care for the environment.
每年，世界各地的人们都会通过帮助保护环境来庆祝这一天。
They carry out all kinds of activities in an effort to better the planet's health.
他们开展各种活动，努力改善地球的健康。
One way to support this goal is to grow plants native to your area.
支持这一目标的一种方法是种植你所在地区的本土植物。
This helps wildlife like birds and insects that evolved alongside native plants.
这对鸟类和昆虫等与本土植物一起进化的野生动物有益。
For many of these animals, plant pollen is their food.
对于许多动物来说，植物花粉是它们的食物。
Native pollinators often cannot recognize non-native plants as food.
本土传粉者通常不把外来植物视为食物。
This means they do not collect the pollen or spread plants' seeds.
这意味着它们不收集花粉或传播植物的种子。
Planting non-native species creates so-called "food deserts" for pollinators including bees, birds, bats, butterflies and more.
种植外来物种为蜜蜂、鸟类、蝙蝠、蝴蝶等传粉者创造了所谓的“食物沙漠”。
Doug Tallamy is a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware.
道格·塔拉米是特拉华大学的昆虫学教授。
Entomology is the study of insects.
昆虫学是研究昆虫的学科。
He found that non-native plant species can harm the natural food chain, which can lead to a collapse of the environment.
他发现，外来植物物种可能会损害自然食物链，从而导致环境崩溃。
"Plant choice matters," he said.
他说：“选择植物很重要”。
"The plants we choose to landscape our properties with should be determined by how much life can live there."
“我们选择种植什么植物来美化我们的房子，应该取决于有多少生物可以在那里生活。”
Humans depend strongly on insects.
人类非常依赖昆虫。
Without them, we would have no flowering plants, which would harm the food web that supports important animals.
如果没有它们，我们就不会有开花的植物，这将会损害支持重要动物的食物网。
Birds, for example, depend on plants for food and spread their seeds while keeping the populations of harmful insects down.
例如，鸟类依靠植物获得食物，鸟类在传播种子的同时减少了有害昆虫的数量。
Insects support plants that provide oxygen, clean our water, capture carbon and add nutrients to the soil.
昆虫支持提供氧气、净化水、捕获碳和为土壤增加养分的植物。
That builds topsoil and prevents flooding.
这会形成表土，防止洪水。
Without insects, the biosphere--the living parts of the Earth--would rot because of the loss of insect decomposers.
如果没有昆虫，生物圈——地球上有生命的部分——将会因为失去昆虫分解者而腐烂。
Humans simply could not survive that, Tallamy said.
塔拉米说，人类根本无法生存下去。
In addition to providing food and habitat for insects and other wildlife, native plants are able to grow easily and do not require much care.
除了为昆虫等野生动物提供食物和栖息地外，本土植物能够很容易地生长，不需要太多的照料。
That means less watering and less fertilizing.
这意味着少浇水，少施肥。
The situation is a win-win for gardeners and pollinators.
对于园丁和传粉者来说，这是一个双赢的局面。
I'm Ashley Thompson.
阿什利·汤普森为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
