Verb Master 動詞達人

Pollinators Shape Plants to their Preference
大黃蜂把花變成牠們喜歡的樣子
By Christopher Intagliata on March 16, 2017

影音說明：https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Bg0auB-gcoc3JzQnkyWi1TVUU

Honeybees are the charismatic(富有個人魅力的) microfauna(小動物) of the pollination(傳粉) world. But flies, bumblebees(大黃蜂), butterflies and moths - they all pollinate too. With varying degrees(不同程度) of success. The poorer ones are technically referred to as ‘inefficient pollinators.’ “Those that do visit but transfer very little pollen in their visit.” Florian Schiestl, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Zurich(瑞士蘇黎世大學).
蜜蜂在花粉界是富有個人魅力的小動物，但是蒼蠅、大黃蜂、蝴蝶和蛾，它們也傳粉，功力高下各不相同，功力低一點的在技術上稱為”低效率傳粉者”，「它們的確會拜訪(花朵)，但是每次只傳遞一滴滴花粉」。瑞士蘇黎世大學進化生物學家佛羅立恩趨勢頭這麼說。

Schiestl and his colleague grew field mustard plants(中國油菜), and exposed them to two types of pollinators: efficient bumblebees and inefficient hoverflies(食蚜蠅). After just 11 generations, they found that the plants visited by bumblebees were taller, twice as fragrant(兩倍的香氣), and reflected more UV light(紫外光) - a visual signal for bees. And those factors made the progeny(子孫) even more attractive to bumblebees at the end of the experiment: a sign the plants had adapted to(改變以適應/因應…) their pollinators' preferences.
趨勢頭和他同事種植中國油菜，然後用兩種昆蟲傳粉：有效率的大黃蜂和沒效率的實蚜蠅。油菜傳宗接代十一次之後，他們發現大黃蜂照看管的油菜比較高、兩倍的芬芳而且反射更多的紫外光，紫外光是給蜜蜂的視覺信號。在實驗最後，這些因素讓油菜的後代子孫更能夠吸引大黃蜂：這是一種植物會因應傳粉者的偏好做調適的示意。

But the plants that got a fly-by(低空貼近掠過) from the flies? They grew shorter. Less fragrant. And actually adapted to do more self-pollination. Because hoverflies are lousy(差勁的) pollinators. The study is in the journal Nature Communications.
但是那些被食蚜蠅低空掠過的植物呢？他們長得比較矮，比較不香，而且實際上他們做調適，自己給自己傳粉，因為食蚜蠅是很肉腳的傳粉者。這份研究在大自然溝通期刊上發表。

So with honeybees in peril(遇到危險、遭受威脅), what happens if we lose them? “This will trigger an evolutionary response in the plants. For example, if flies take over as more important pollinators, as they used to be in the past, then very likely we'll have some evolutionary change going on." 
所以當大黃蜂性命受到威脅，我們如果失去它會發生什麼狀況？「這會啟動植物的進化反應，就跟以往一樣，然後我們就會見到某種進化改變的進行。」

And if the change is self-pollination, that could be trouble. “Self-pollination leads to reduction of genetic variability(基因多樣化) in the population, and this can be a problem for the plants, because they have a reduced ability to evolve resistance against diseases.” Meaning that if we lose the pollinators, it’s the plants‘ genomes(某物種全部的基因) that may go to seed(落魄衰敗).
如果改變成自我傳粉，這就會出問題，「自我傳粉會導致這群生物的基因多樣化的減少，對這些植物是個麻煩，因為它們抵抗疾病的進化力降低」，意味著，如果我們失去傳粉者，這些植物的基因群會悽慘落魄。