科学家故意倾泻石油入湖泊研究生态保护

It’s rare that oil is spilled intentionally. But that is what recently happened at a lake in Ontario, Canada.

故意泄漏石油世所罕见。但最近，在加拿大安大略省的一个湖泊这样的事情还真在上演。

Earlier in June, bitumen – a molasses-like product that comes from oil sands – was drizzled into corrals in an unnamed lake in Ontario’s International Institute for Sustainable Development Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA). The reason may seem counterintuitive: to protect future freshwater systems from oil spills.

六月初，沥青——油砂中提炼出的糖浆似物质，被倒入了安大略国际可持续发展研究院实验湖区（IISD-ELA）中一个无名湖的围栏中。原因可能听起来有些莫名其妙：为了保护未来可能遭受石油泄漏的淡水系统。

In giant, test tube-like columns of natural lake water, scientists are studying the physical, chemical, biological and toxicological impacts of the diluted form of bitumen (called ‘dilbit’ for short) on freshwater organisms – from tiny plankton to frogs and fish.

在这些装着天然湖水的巨大的管子似的圆柱中，科学家们正在研究稀释沥青对淡水生物（从浮游生物到青蛙和鱼类）的物理作用、化学作用、生物作用以及毒性作用。

Until now, these kinds of experiments have only been attempted in the laboratory. But lab-based work can’t replicate a real-life scenario. This experiment, the first of its kind in Canada, is an opportunity for scientists to answer the kinds of questions that could help protect Canada’s lakes in the future: What happens to spilled bitumen in freshwater ecosystems? Where does it go? And how can it be cleaned up in the safest, most effective way? That’s because clean up procedures for accidentally spilled dilbit are necessarily different than those for conventional crude oil.

在此之前，这种实验只在实验室中做过，但仅仅基于实验室的研究不能复制真实自然界情景。加拿大这项开创性实验，让科学家们有机会弄清楚未来如何有效保护加拿大湖泊的一些问题，比如泄漏的沥青在淡水生态系统中会引起什么反应？沥青去了哪里？怎么能最安全、有效地清理干净？因为清理稀释沥青的方法和传统原油的方法并不相同。

In the weeks leading up to the spill, dozens of students have been labouring at the gravel pit, shovelling sand into bags. They haul their quarry along a muddy, root-filled trail to the lake by lorry and quad bike. Once unloaded, the heavy sandbags are muscled down to the wooden dock to be loaded onto boats. “It’s really cheap cross-fit,” says University of Manitoba student Sonya Michaleski, here for her third summer, with a laugh.

在倾倒稀释沥青之前的几个星期，许多学生已经在采石场工作了很久。他们铲沙装进袋子，然后开着卡车或四轮摩托，沿着树根缠绕的泥泞道路，把这些沙袋运到湖边，卸下来之后放在木制码头上，然后再搬到船上。这是曼尼托巴大学的学生麦考斯基（ Sonya Michaleski）来这里的第三个夏天，她笑着说，"不花钱就能健身。"

Hauling sandbags is one part of her job. Collecting fish slime and fish vomit for analysis is another. Graduate student Sam Patterson explains his role: drawing water from the enclosures before and after the dilbit spill, then placing the black-dotted eggs of wood frogs in the treated and untreated water to see how the exposure affects their development.

运沙袋是她工作的一部分。搜集鱼的粘液和呕吐物做分析是她的另一项工作。帕特森（Sam Patterson）是一名研究生，他解释自己的角色：搜集稀释沥青泄漏前后围栏内的淡水，然后将树蛙的黑点卵放入经过处理和未经处理的两类湖水中，观察沥青对树蛙发育会有什么影响。

The bulk of the data collection will take place this summer and autumn before the lake freezes up. Subsequent analysis by their team of more than 30 scientists will be shared first in academic journals, but ultimately with the public.

大量数据采集基本会在湖水上冻之前的夏天和秋天完成。30多个科学家组成的团队其后续分析结果会首先发表在学术期刊上，但最终会与大众分享。

The IISD-ELA is known for its whole lake experiments. Past work has contaminated some lakes with phosphorus, cadmium, mercury, and synthetic oestrogen, the active ingredient in birth control pills. But never oil.

国际可持续发展研究院实验湖区（ IISD-ELA）以其完全在室外淡水湖作实验闻名。以前的实验曾用过磷、镉、汞、合成雌激素等化学物，以及避孕药里的有效成分来污染湖水作研究，但从未试过石油。

The experiment – nicknamed Boreal, an acronym for Boreal Lake Oil Release Experiment by Additions to Limnocorrals – won’t be a whole lake experiment, either. Small enclosures restrict the oil spill area and four extra containment measures are in place to avoid contaminating the entire body of water, explains Vince Palace, IISD-ELA’s head research scientist and project leader for a separate oil spill experiment, the Freshwater Oil Spill Remediation study (Forest).

实验的昵称是"北湖"（Boreal），是北方湖泊石油泄漏实验加上湖泊围栏的简称，但不是用整个湖区作实验。帕雷斯（Vince Palace）是国际可持续发展研究院实验湖区（IISD-ELA）的领头研究员，也是另一个独立的石油泄漏实验和淡水石油泄漏整治研究（森林）的项目带头人，他解释道，用围栏封闭住的部分湖区是一个很小范围，倾倒的石油只限制在这个小范围内，而且还采取了另外四种控制措施防止倾倒的石油渗透污染到整个水体。