托福阅读背景之厄尔尼诺题材

　　广泛的托福阅读背景知识积累，有助于托福阅读速度和准确率的提升。托福阅读文章分为自然科学、人文科学、互联网等几大类，如果同学们平时能对这些种类的文章都有所涉猎，托福阅读考试中遇到相关的话题就会有非常熟悉的感觉。下面给大家提供一篇关于厄尔尼诺题材的背景材料，希望能拓宽同学们的阅读面。

　　The research is published online in the journal Nature Geoscience(地球科学). ElNino is a periodic(周期的)warming in the eastern tropical Pacific that occurs alongthe coast of South America. Recently, scientists have noticed that El Ninowarming is stronger in the Central Pacific rather than the Eastern Pacific, aphenomenon known as El Nino Modoki (Modoki is a Japanese term for "similar, butdifferent").

　　Last year, the journal Nature published a paper that found climate changeis behind this shift from El Nino to El Nino Modoki. While the findings of thatpaper are still being debated, this latest paper in Nature Geoscience presentsevidence that El Nino Modoki drives a climate pattern known as the North PacificGyre Oscillation (NPGO).

　　"We've found that El Nino Modoki is responsible for changes in theNPGO,"said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, associate professor in the School of Earth andAtmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The reason this isimportant is because the NPGO has significant effects on fish stocks(鱼类)andocean nutrient distributions(海洋营养分布)in the Pacific, especially along the westcoast of the United States."

　　The NPGO, first named two years ago by Di Lorenzo and colleagues in a paperin Geophysical Research Letters, explained for the first time long-term changesin ocean circulation of the North Pacific, which scientists now link to anincreasing number of dramatic transitions in coastal marine(沿海海域)ecosystems.

　　"The ecosystems of the Pacific may very well become more sensitive to theNPGO in the future," said Di Lorenzo. "Our data show that this NPGO isdefinitively linked to El Nino Modoki, so as Modoki becomes more frequent in thecentral tropical Pacific, the NPGO will also intensify(增强)."

　　Vocabulary：

　　Geoscience：n. 地球科学

　　environmental geoscience　环境地学

　　South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission

　　南太平洋应用地球科学委员会(南太地科委)

　　Coordinating Committee for Coastal and Offshore Geoscience Programmes inEast and Southeast Asia

　　东亚和东南亚沿海和近海地球科学方案协调委员

　　Periodic：a.周期的，定期的，时而发生的

　　The quality or state of being periodic; recurrence at regularintervals.

　　周期性周期出现的性质或状态; 以固定的间隔而发生

　　A column in the periodic table of the elements.

　　属，族元素周期表上的一栏

　　Ecosystems：生态系统

　　Aquatic ecosystems share a number of basic structural and functionalcharacteristics with terrestrial ecosystems.

　　水生生态系统的结构和机能,在许多基本特征方面同陆地生态系统一样。

　　Temperate forest ecosystems occupy a position of prominence among allecosystems.

　　温带森林生态系统在所有生态系统中占有优势地位。