经济学人下载:减少温室气体排放(1)

Ancient Greek writings describe livestock eating seaweed, as do Icelandic sagas.
古希腊文字中有关于家畜食用海藻的描述，冰岛的传奇故事中也有。

And, as the picture shows, sheep on North Ronaldsay, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, still graze on the stuff.
如图所示，在苏格兰奥克尼群岛的北罗纳德赛岛上，羊仍然以这种东西为食。

But that is now seen as unusual. It may not be in the future, however, as research conducted in Australia and New Zealand
但现在看来，这是不寻常的。但以后可能就觉得正常了，因为在澳大利亚和新西兰进行的研究表明

suggests algavory of this sort may reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from stock animals.
这种藻类可以减少家畜的温室气体排放。

The research in question is being co-ordinated by CSIRO, Australia's main science agency.
上述研究由澳大利亚主要科学机构联邦科学与工业研究组织（CSIRO）协调进行。

The project is looking into microbes that inhabit the stomachs of ruminants such as cattle and sheep.
该项目正在研究反刍动物（如牛和羊）胃中的微生物。

These bugs transform those animals' fibrous fare into energy-rich molecules, some of which the host animal is able to absorb and utilise.
这些细菌将这些动物的纤维食物转化成能量丰富的分子，其中一些是宿主动物能够吸收和利用的。

One energy-rich molecule that is not absorbed, though, is methane. Instead, the animals belch it into the atmosphere.
然而，有一种能量丰富的分子—甲烷，动物们不能吸收甲烷而是把它喷到大气中。

Which is a problem, because methane is a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect 28 times as powerful as carbon dioxide's.
这是一个问题，因为甲烷是温室气体，其温室效应是二氧化碳的28倍。

Since this loss of methane also deprives the host of the energy therein,
由于甲烷的损失也剥夺了宿主的能量，

thus probably reducing its growth rate, controlling methanogenic bacterial activity in ruminants looks like a beneficial twofer.
因此，控制反刍动物体内产甲烷细菌的活性或许能够降低其增长率，这似乎是一种有益的双重作用。

The antimethanogenic powers of Asparagopsis, the seaweed in question,
芦笋藻（上述所谈到的藻类）的抗甲烷产出能力

were discovered in 2016 and experiments involving it have been going on since then.
发现于2016年并且其相关试验持续至今。

One of the latest, published in October in the Journal of Cleaner Production,
其中最新的一篇发表在10月份的《Journal of Cleaner Production》上，

showed that dairy cows eating a diet containing 1% Asparagopsis produce only a third of the methane belched by cows on seaweedless diets.
该研究表明食用含有1%芦笋藻食物的奶牛产生的甲烷只有食用无海藻食物奶牛的三分之一。