虎鲨帮助我们发现世界上最大的海草生态系统(上)

An unlikely team of researchers and—get this—tiger sharks has discovered the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem.

一个研究团队通过虎鲨发现了世界上最大的海草生态系统，这难以置信。

It’s been hiding in plain sight, just off the coast of the Bahamas.

海草生态系统一直藏在眼皮底下，就在巴哈马海岸附近。

Their results appear in Nature Communications.

这项研究结果发表在《自然通讯》杂志上。

This is Scientific American’s Science, Quickly. I’m Joseph Polidoro.

这里是科学美国人的Science, Quickly栏目。我是约瑟夫·波利多罗。

As ecosystems go, seagrasses are right up there with rain forests and coral reefs.

目前，海草与雨林和珊瑚一样是重要的生态系统。

It's actually one of the most important hubs or magnets for biodiversity.

海草实际上是生物多样性最重要的中心(聚集地)之一。

Austin Gallagher is a marine biologist and CEO of Beneath the Waves, an ocean conservation noNPRofit.

奥斯汀·加拉格尔是一名海洋生物学家，也是海洋保护非营利组织“海浪之下”的首席执行官。

Seagrasses are nurseries to a fifth of the world’s largest fisheries and are shelters for thousands of species.

海草苗圃占世界最大渔场的五分之一，为数千种物种提供庇护。

They protect other habitats and coastlines.

海草还保护着其他栖息地与海岸线。

And they store enormous amounts of carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

它们储存着大量的碳，不然的话，这些碳会被释放到大气中。

It’s sort of this incredible unsung hero of ocean conservation.

海草是了不起的海洋保护无名英雄。

But as much as half the world’s seagrass is yet to be found.

但世界上有多达一半的海草尚未被发现。

We’re protecting these critical ecosystems with surveys that are as accurate as an early Renaissance map of the New World.

我们正在保护这些重要的生态系统，我们的调查如同文艺复兴早期的新大陆地图一样准确。

That’s because, unlike mangroves and warm-water coral reefs, seagrass meadows aren’t always picked up by satellite or airplane observation.

这是因为，与红树林和暖水珊瑚礁不同，卫星或飞机并不能总是识别到海草草甸。

Cloud cover and glare from the seafloor also help keep the Bahamas seagrass hidden.

厚厚云层与海底强光也会帮助巴哈马海草隐藏。

There’s a lot of false negatives and a lot of false positives.

存在很多误判与漏判。

Carlos Duarte is a marine ecologist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

卡洛斯·杜阿尔特是沙特阿拉伯阿卜杜拉国王科技大学的海洋生态学家。

If I had tried to do it myself..., probably I would never have tried.

如果我试着自己......，我可能永远都不会尝试。

For decades, Carlos had suspected that the Bahama Banks might host an enormous seagrass habitat. But he couldn’t prove it.

几十年来，卡洛斯一直怀疑巴哈马浅滩可能拥有巨大的海草栖息地。但他没有证据。

Remote sensing will never produce a reliable record.

遥感永远不会产生可靠的记录。

And then ground-truthing the Bahamas Banks, because of the sheer size, proved impossible.

事实证明，由于巴哈马群岛浅滩规模庞大，难以对其进行实地调查。

By the way — ground-truthing is establishing the on-the-ground truth by direct observation.

顺便提一下，实地调查是通过直接观察来确定实地的真实情况。

For seagrass, that’s usually done by divers or by researchers on a boat.

对海草的实地调查通常是由潜水员或船上研究人员完成的。

I really believe that if we had not come together like we did, this discovery might not have happened.

我真的相信，如果我们没有像往常那样聚在一起，可能就不会有这个发现。

Then, by chance, Carlos met Austin–and saw footage from Austin’s shark-mounted cameras.

一次偶然的机会，卡洛斯遇到了奥斯汀，而且看到了奥斯汀装在鲨鱼身上的摄像机拍摄的画面。

We saw these vast underwater seagrass meadows.

我们看到了水下广阔的海草草甸。

Carlos had found his ground-truthers.

卡洛斯找到了他的地面实况记录者。

Tiger sharks were the total game changer of this whole process. Tiger sharks love seagrass habitat. So tiger sharks are this incredible ally.

虎鲨彻底改变了整个调查过程。虎鲨喜欢海草栖息地。虎鲨是调查中了不起的助手。