Verb Master 動詞達人

Low Biodiversity Brings Earlier Bloom
誰先開花誰先掛
By Christopher Intagliata on March 15, 2017

影音說明：https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Bg0auB-gcoZG1tNmFJZERHNzg

As climate change dials up([US]增加) global temperatures, one effect is an earlier flower bloom(開花). But it turns out there‘s another factor that also means faster flowering(開花): a loss in biodiversity(生物多樣性) in a flower field(花田).
當氣候變遷提高全球氣溫，其中一個影響結果是提早開花，結果出現另一個因素也意味著快速提早開花：花田失去生物的多樣性。

“The amount of change in flowering time(花季) that we see with diversity loss is in the same magnitude(= large size, importance) range as the amount of change in flowering time we see with rising temperatures, globally.” Amy Wolf, an ecologist at Columbia University and U.C. Davis(加州大學戴維斯分校). 
「花季時期我們看到的多樣化失去的規模大小和花季上升的氣溫一樣，全球性的」，哥倫比亞大學和加州大學戴維斯分校生態學家艾美沃夫這麼說道。

Wolf and her colleagues studied that effect in a grassland(草原) in northern California, in study plots(研究用小塊土地) with two to 16 species of plants. And they found that, for every two species lost, the remaining flowers blossomed a day earlier, on average. Possibly because the less diverse plots(物種較少的土地) had higher soil temperatures, more moisture, and more nitrogen(氮) - all variables(變數) that could tweak bloom time. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
沃夫和她的同事在加州北部草原上研究這種影響結果，在幾塊研究用土地上種植二到十六種植物，他們發現，平均每失去兩個品種，其它的花就提早一天開，也許是因為物種比較少的土地的溫度比較高、比較潮濕、也含有比較多的氮，所有的變數都會對開花時間進行微調。這份研究報告在英國科學皇家學院Proceedings期刊出版。

The reason it matters(要緊嗎)? Because flowers might bloom earlier than pollinators are expecting(預期) them. “And that could lead to a whole cascade of things(一連串的事件). If plants don‘t get pollinated (授粉['pɑlənet]), or they don't get pollinated well, then you can start to lose species at an even more rapid rate.“
Wolf says it‘s too soon to know whether biodiversity loss and climate change will have synergistic effects(合成效應) on flower timing(開花時間點). But combine climate change, species loss, and unpredictable ecological effects like this - and you've got a pretty ugly arrangement.
原因很重要嗎？因為花開得比授粉者預期的時間早，這會導致一連串的事件，如果植物沒有被傳粉，或者傳粉傳得不夠好，接下來就是更快的速度失去品種。
沃夫提及，我們時間上還來不及知道生物多樣性減少和氣候變遷對開花時間是否有合成效應，但是氣候變遷加上物種減少加上這種不可預期的生態效應，這是相當難看的安排