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Science and technology
科学技术
Marine ecology
海洋生态学
Welcome to the plastisphere
欢迎来到塑料圈
What is pollution to some is opportunity to others
对有些生物是污染物的塑料对另一些生物却是机会
SINCE 2008 geologists have been mulling over the idea of the Anthropocene,
自2008年起，地质学家便一直在琢磨人类世这个概念。
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.
人类世是新近提出的一个地球纪元，囊括了人类的改造对地球产生深刻影响的时期。
Most often, discussion of the Anthropocene revolves around how atmospheric chemistry has changed since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
大多时候，对人类世的探讨以工业革命开始后大气的化学性质如何变化为主。
Sometimes the effects of new terrestrial ecosystems, in the form of fields, pastures and plantations, are also considered.
间或还会考虑对田地，牧场及种植园等形式的新型陆地生态系统产生的影像。
To date, though, how the Anthropocene has created new ecosystems in the oceans as well as on land has not been much examined.
然而人类世是如何与在陆地上一样在海洋中创造新生态系统的问题迄今为止还未有深入研究。
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.
然而正如马萨诸塞州的伍兹霍尔海洋学研究所的特雷西·明瑟以及伍兹霍尔海洋生物学实验室的琳达·阿马拉尔-赛特勒在《环境科学技术》上所说的，这类生态系统正在慢慢浮出水面。
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对于海鸟，海龟以及其它海洋生物的有害作用已经广为人知。
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，明瑟和阿马拉尔-赛特勒两位博士发现，塑料碎片还为小到足以栖身其上的微生物提供了一块新的栖息地。
The two researchers collected pieces of plastic from various sites in the North Atlantic.
这两位研究人员在北大西洋上的多个区域搜集了许多塑料片。
They then examined each using DNA analysis, and also an electron microscope, to see what was living on it.
然后使用DNA分析及电子显微镜对每一块碎片进行了检测，来观查上面有什么生物。
Lots of things were. Altogether, they discovered about 50 species of single-celled plant, animal and bacterial life.
上面确实有很多生物，他们一共发现了大约50种单细胞植物，动物及细菌生命体。
Each bit of debris was, in effect, a tiny ecosystem.
实际上，每块碎片都是一个微型生态系统。
As with many ecosystems, the bottom of the food chain was occupied by things that photosynthesise.
与许多生态系统一样，位于生物链底层的是进行光合作用的生物，
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单细胞藻类以及被称为蓝藻细菌的光合细菌。
Usually, such creatures swim freely in the ocean.
通常情况下，这些生物在海洋中随波逐流，
They therefore have to work hard to stay near the surface, where light for photosynthesis is abundant.
然而它们必须努力停留在海面附近，以获得充足的阳光进行光合作用。
By hitching a ride on a piece of floating plastic, they can stay near the surface without effort.
要是能搭上一块浮在水面上的塑料片，它们就能毫不费力地停留在海面附近。
Where plants abound, herbivores will not be far behind.
植物丰沛之地，食草动物也不会少。
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.
明瑟和阿马拉尔·赛特勒两位博士发现的食草动物的形式是鞭毛藻类，其中有些会将更小的生物当成点心，作为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.
两位博士还发现了以这些食草动物为食的捕食者，存在形式是纤毛虫和以其他细菌为食的捕食性细菌。
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.
要不是没发现顶层捕食者-捕食其他捕食者的捕食者-两位研究人员便会发现一张那种经常在生态学教科书中见到的典型食物网。
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.
他们还发现了这种食物网中另一个部分-分解者-的存在迹象，这或许是最为符合人类立场发现。
Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily.
塑料是富含能量的物质，这正是许多塑料都极易燃烧的原因。
Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene.
所有可以将其中的能量取出食用的微生物都能在人类世中过得不错。
Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
该领域的专家已经对能做到这点的陆生细菌及真菌如数家珍。
Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too.
明瑟和阿马拉尔·赛特勒两位博士也在他们的海中塑料上发现了这类微生物的迹象。
They noticed many of their pieces of debris sported surface pits around two microns across.
他们注意到许多自己手上的塑料片表面上都生有许多约两微米宽的凹点。
Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell.
这种凹点差不多和细菌细胞一样大。
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.
进一步的检测发现这些凹点中有一部分确实含有细菌，并且在一些样本中，这些细菌还在不断分裂，按照与算术上的称法相反的生物学术语来说，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.
虽然这两位研究人员还未证明这些凹点中的细菌确实在以塑料为食，但这一假设似乎颇有成立的可能。
And if they are, it suggests plastic pollution in the ocean may not hang around as long as has often been feared.
如果这些细菌确实以塑料为食，这说明海洋中的塑料污染物有可能并不会像人们通常担忧的那样一直在海中飘来荡去。
Less encouragingly, Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler also found cholera-like bacteria in their tiny floating ecosystems.
遗憾的是，明瑟和阿马拉尔-赛特勒两位博士还在他们的微型漂浮生态系统里发现了类霍乱细菌。
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.
鱼和海鸟都会成为霍乱的携带者，所以任何可能会让这类生物带上霍乱菌的地点都值得密切关注。
The researchers paint an intriguing picture of the adaptability of nature, and provide another piece of the jigsaw that is the Anthropocene.
这两位研究人员为自然适应性描绘了一幅引人入胜的图画，又在人类世的拼图上添上了一块。
Conservationists intent on preserving charismatic megafauna have reason to lament the spread of plastics through the ocean.
致力于保护受人喜爱的大型动物的环境保护主义者有理由为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.
但这些塑料却带给那些兴趣在于微型生物体的人一个全新的生态圈-塑料圈-用于研究。
