用英語介紹海豚的特徵（87雙語科普）

2023-04-20 15:12:01

Balloons（氣球） have been identified as a major threat to the seabirds traversing（穿越） the world's oceans and mistakenly feeding（誤食） on plastic.

氣球已被確定為構成海鳥穿越海洋並誤食塑料的主要威脅。

While soft plastics only accounted for 5 per cent of the plastics consumed by albatrosses（信天翁） and other birds,

雖然軟塑料只佔信天翁和其他鳥類所攝入塑料製品的5%，

a new study found they were responsible for 40 per cent of deaths.

但新的研究結果顯示，40%的鳥類死亡都是由此造成的。

Researchers at the University of Tasmania in Australia concluded that while harder shards（碎片） tend to pass quickly through the gut（腸道）,

澳大利亞塔斯馬尼亞大學的研究人員得出結論稱硬塑料碎片可能會快速通過腸道，

softer pieces are more likely to cause blockages（阻塞）.

但軟塑料更容易引起阻塞。

One in five birds that consumed balloons died, the scientists said.

科學家表示，有五分之一的鳥兒因誤食氣球而死亡。

"Among the birds we studied the leading cause of death was blockage of the gastrointestinal tract（胃腸道）, followed by infections or other complications caused by gastrointestinal obstructions,"

「在我們研究的鳥類樣本中，導致死亡的主要原因是胃腸道受阻，其次是胃腸道阻塞所引起的感染或其他併發症。」

said PhD student Lauren Roman, who led the study.

這項研究的領頭人博士生勞倫·羅曼說道。

"Balloons or balloon fragments（碎片） were the marine debris（碎片） most likely to cause mortality（死亡）."

「氣球或氣球碎片是最容易造成海鳥死亡的海洋垃圾。」

One study led by Dr Chris Wilcox estimated 99 per cent of seabirds around the world would be eating plastic by the middle of the century.

克裡斯·威爾考克斯博士所做的一項研究表示，到本世紀中葉，世界各地會有99％以上的海鳥食用塑料。

Dr Wilcox, who also worked on the latest seabird study — published in the journal Scientific Reports —

威爾考克斯博士致力於最新的海鳥研究，還在《科學報告》上發表文章稱，

said the new approach for analysing the impact of plastic had previously been trialled（實驗） in turtles（海龜）.

用於分析塑料影響的新方法曾在海龜身上做過實驗。

Their results show conclusively that the more plastic a bird eats, the more likely it is to die.

他們的研究結果確定，鳥兒吃的塑料越多，死亡機率就越大。

Previous work has shown that besides the physical blockages of plastic in a bird's gut,

先前的研究顯示，塑料除了能夠在鳥類體內造成物理堵塞外，

plastic can also leach potentially harmful chemicals into their bodies.

也會使潛在的有害化學成分滲透進它們體內。

One recent study found traces of plastic-derived（塑料衍生） chemicals in the eggs of northern fulmars inhabiting the remote Arctic（北極的）.

最近的一項研究發現，生活在北極偏遠地區的北部管鼻鸌（一種海鳥）的蛋中也有塑料衍生的化學物質的痕跡。

"The evidence is clear that if we want to stop seabirds from dying from plastic ingestion（攝取） we need to reduce or remove marine debris（海洋垃圾） from their environment, particularly balloons," said Ms Roman.

羅曼女士說：「證據清楚表明，如果我們想要阻止海鳥死於塑料攝入，就要減少或清除它們生活環境裡的海洋垃圾，特別是氣球。」