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　　Low Biodiversity Brings Earlier Bloom

　　生物多样性的丧失让花开得越来越早

　　As climate change dials up global temperatures, one effect is an earlier flower bloom. But it turns out there’s another factor that also means faster flowering: a loss in biodiversity in a flower field.

　　随着气候变化引起全球气温上升，它带来的一个影响是花期变早了。但事实证明，还有另一个因素也意味着开花时间提前：花卉领域生物多样性的丧失。

　　"The amount of change in flowering time that we see with diversity loss is in the same magnitude range as the amount of change in flowering time we see with rising temperatures, globally." Amy Wolf, an ecologist at Columbia University and U.C. Davis.

　　美国哥伦比亚大学和加州大学戴维斯分校的生态学家Amy Wolf说：“我们看到的多样性损失的开花时间变化幅度与全球气温上升时开花时间的变化幅度相同”。

　　Wolf and her colleagues studied that effect in a grassland in northern California, in study plots with two to 16 species of plants. And they found that, for every two species lost, the remaining flowers blossomed a day earlier, on average. Possibly because the less diverse plots had higher soil temperatures, more moisture, and more nitrogen—all variables that could tweak bloom time. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Amelia A. Wolf et al., Flowering phenology shifts in response to biodiversity loss]

　　Wolf和她的同事们在加利福尼亚北部的一片草原上的试验田里研究了这种效应，在研究了2~16物种后发现，对于每两个消失的物种，剩下那那棵花开花时间平均来说提前了一天，可能是因为相对来说不具多样性的地块有更高的土壤温度、更高的水分和更多的氮——所有这些变量导致开花时间出现调整。这项研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》杂志上。[ Amelia A. Wolf等人，开花物候变化与生物多样性损失的协调机制研究]

　　The reason it matters because flowers might bloom earlier than pollinators are expecting them. "And that could lead to a whole cascade of things. If plants don’t get pollinated, or they don’t get pollinated well, then you can start to lose species at an even more rapid rate."

　　这个原因之所以重要是因为花可能比传粉者预期的时间开得更早。“这可能会导致一连串的事情。如果植物不能授粉，或者它们不能很好地授粉，那么就会以更快的速度失去物种。”

　　Wolf says it’s too soon to know whether biodiversity loss and climate change will have synergistic effects on flower timing. But combine climate change, species loss, and unpredictable ecological effects like this—and you’ve got a pretty ugly arrangement.

　　Wolf说，当前认为生物多样性的丧失和气候变化会对花的时间产生协同效应还为时过早。但结合气候变化、物种丢失和类似这样的不可预知的生态影响——你会很难作出安排。

　　来源:科学美国人