太平洋沿岸的向日葵海星数量急剧减少

A lot of people when they think of top predators in the ocean, they might think of something like a shark, and that's exactly what you should be thinking about when you think about the sunflower star.

很多人想到海洋中的顶级捕食动物时，他们可能会想到鲨鱼之类的动物，而这正是你们在想到向日葵海星时应该想到的。

It's the largest sea star in the world.

它是世界上最大的海星。

So, it eats all kinds of organisms on the sea floor from shellfish to sea urchins moving their little tiny feet underneath to glide across the sea floor, and then strike fear into organisms that they encounter.

因此，向日葵海星吃从贝类到海胆的海底各种生物，移动它们下面的小脚在海底滑行，从而让它们遇到的生物感到恐惧。

So, when they eat, they actually swallow the entire prey whole and it sort of seems a little counterintuitive to say that a predator helps to keep more species around but that's actually what happens.

所以，当它们进食的时候，它们实际上会把整个猎物吞下去，说捕食者帮助维持更多物种的生存似乎有点违反直觉，但这确实是事实。

And so, when the top predators are present, you have a much more diverse and high functioning ecosystem.

所以，当顶级捕食动物出现的时候，生态系统就更加多样化和高效。

My name is Jason Hodin and I'm a research scientist at Friday Harbor laboratories at the University of Washington.

我叫杰森·霍丁，是华盛顿大学星期五港实验室的一名研究科学家。

The sunflower star existed along a very, very wide stretch of the coastline all the way from Alaska down to northern Mexico.

从阿拉斯加一直延伸到墨西哥北部的一条非常非常宽广的海岸线上, 向日葵海星栖息于此。

Starting in about 2013, there was a syndrome that started to appear all up and down the west coast of north America where sea stars of all varieties started to show this wasting syndrome which is this horrible effect that causes the sea stars to essentially melt.

大约从2013年开始，北美西海岸各地开始出现一种综合症，在那里各种海星开始表现出这种消瘦综合症，正是这种可怕的影响导致了海星基本上消失。

Sunflower stars were really, really hard hit.

向日葵海星真的，真的受到了很大的打击。

And they were down in this region to probably five percent of their historical numbers.

在这个地区，他们的数量可能下降到百分之五，创下历史新低。

And in some areas in the south, like of California, we haven't seen sunflower stars for years.

在南部的一些地区，比如加利福尼亚，我们已经好几年没有看到向日葵海星了。

When a predator that's a key member of the ecosystem like sunflower stars disappear, you know, there are really, really broad cascading effects.

当这个生态系统的关键成员一个捕食动物，比如向日葵海星消失时，你知道，会有非常非常广泛的级联效应。

And that's what we're actually seeing in places like California where kelp forests are declining.

这就是我们在加州等地所看到的，那里的海藻林正在减少。

And that's that happened right around the same time as the sea stars started to disappear.

这是在海星开始消失的同时发生的。

Kelp is just so fundamental to the health and well-being of the ocean.

海藻对海洋的健康和福祉至关重要。

It's a habitat for an incredible number of organisms.

海藻是数量惊人的生物的栖息地。

It removes carbon from the atmosphere and what we've seen is essentially a shift in the habitat from this diverse, highly functioning ecosystem with many different kinds of species.

海藻消除了大气中的碳，我们所看到的基本上是栖息地的变化，从这个拥有许多不同物种的多样化的、高效的生态系统移除。

And now, we see mostly barren habitat with a lot of sea urchins and sea urchins eat kelp.

现在，我们看到的大多是贫瘠的栖息地，有很多海胆，海胆吃海藻。

And so right now, populations are sort of out of balance.

所以现在，种群数量有点失衡。

And we think that one of the contributing factors for that is the loss of one of their major predators the sunflower star.

我们认为造成这种情况的原因之一是它们的主要捕食动物之一向日葵海星的消失。