Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a botany class.

旁白：听一段植物学讲座。

Professor: When we talk about pollination ecology, we are talking about the relationship between a plant and its pollinator.

教授：当我们谈论授粉生态学，我们就是在谈论植物以及它传粉者之间的关系。

From the plants' perspective, the ideal pollinator is an animal that is under-fed, ready to eat and in a hurry.

从植物的角度来看，理想的授粉者就是吃不饱并且想立即进食的动物。

The pollinator, on the other hand, wants to remain well-fed with as little effort as possible.

另一方面，授粉者想用最少的力保持营养充足。

These factors help drive the evolution of plants and their pollinators, both of which depend on this balanced and delicate relationship.

这些因素推动着植物和它们授粉者的进化，这两者都依赖着这种平衡和微妙的关系。

Sometimes only certain insects or birds can pollinate certain plant species.

有些时候，只有特定的昆虫或者鸟类可以对特定的植物授粉。

So to really understand pollination ecology, both the flower and its pollinators must be studied.

因此要真正了解授粉生态学，就必须将开花植物和它的授粉者一起研究。

Let's start with flowers.

让我们从开花植物开始说起。

There are several important factors associated with pollination: when and how often a plan flowers, how long the flowering cycle lasts, and the number of flowers that open at the same time.

授粉和几个关键因素有关联：一个植物在什么时候、多久开花一次，开花的周期持续多久，多少花同时开放。

For example, flowering may coincide with the migration of a certain animal species that pollinates the plant, or producing many flowers at once may increase the number of pollinators a plant attracts.

比如，开花时间可能和对这个植物授粉者迁徙的时间吻合，或者制造出许多花朵同时开放会增加这个植物能够吸引授粉者的数量。

Other characteristics of flowers are also important.

开花植物的其他特点也很重要.

Features such as color, scent and shape attract pollinators, as does the reward in the flower, the pollen or the nectar, that feeds the pollinator.

比如会吸引授粉者的颜色、气味、形状等特征，开花植物给予授粉者的回报如花粉花蜜。

For example, flowers that attract bats tend to be green or cream-colored, because visibility isn't important.

比如，吸引蝙蝠的开花植物更倾向于是绿色或者是米色的，因为可见度是不重要的。

Bats are practically blind, remember.

实际上，蝙蝠是瞎子，记得吗。

And these flowers bloom at night when bats are active.

并且这些花是在蝙蝠活跃的晚上开放。

Now, there's a flower in the Amazon rainforest called a royal water lily and the characteristics of its flowers change during the pollination process.

现在，在亚马逊雨林中有一种皇家睡莲，它的开花特点在授粉过程中会改变。

The royal water lily uses color, temperature and scent to attract the beetles that pollinate it.

皇家睡莲使用颜色、温度、气味等去吸引为它授粉的蜜蜂。

When the flowers of the royal water lily first open up, when they first bloom, they are white.

当皇家睡莲第一次开放的时候，它们是白色的。

They also emit a strong odor and their temperature rises.

它们同时也散发出强烈的气味，它们的温度也上升了。

Producing heat serves two purposes.

制造热量有两个目的。

It magnifies the scent of the flower and it helps the beetles maintain their body temperature.

它增加了花的香气并且帮助蜜蜂去保持它们的体温。

When a beetle arrives at the flower, the flower closes around it for about 24 hours so that the beetle becomes covered with pollen.

当一只蜜蜂到一朵花上的时候，这朵花会闭合24小时，这样这个蜜蜂就会被花粉覆盖。

Then when the flower opens, its color changes to red and it cools down.

接着，当花打开时，花的颜色变成红的并且温度也下降了。

When the beetle flies out, it carries the pollen to a different, heated, white, fragrant flower.

当蜜蜂飞出去的时候，它带着花粉飞到不同的加热的白色芳香的花朵上去。

As you can see, plants go to a lot of trouble to attract attention.

你们可以知道，植物在吸引注意的方面是有很多问题的。

So what kind of attention are they attracting? And why?

那么它们可以吸引哪种注意呢？为什么呢？

Well, sometimes flowers provide shelter for insects, a place to lay eggs for instance.

有些时候，花朵会为昆虫提供庇护场所，比如一个可以产卵的地方。

But usually the attraction is food: nectar and pollen.

但是，通常情况下，食物才是吸引力：花蜜和花粉。

Nectar is mainly a sugar solution, while pollen is a grain made up of part of the plant's cell structure.

花蜜是一种糖的溶液，而花粉则是由植物一部分的细胞结构组成。

In both nectar and pollen production, quality and quantity vary over time.

在花粉和花蜜的生产中，不同时间的质量和数量都会改变。

But they are always related to the needs of the pollinator.

但是，它们永远和授粉者的需求有关。

You can see that the relationships between pollinators and plants are delicate, so any number of factors can disturb them.

你可以了解到的是植物和授粉者之间的关系是脆弱的，因此任何一个因素都可以妨碍它们。

Human development is one. And agriculture is generally believed to be the most harmful.

人类发展也是其中给一个。并且普遍来说，农业可以说是最有危害性的。

It can fragment habitats in a variety of ways, reducing the number of pollinators, which in turn may reduce the number or size of the flowers, which of course affects the animals that feed on them.

它可以在不同方面破坏栖息地，减少授粉者，也因此减少了开花的数量和大小，当然这也影响了以它们为食物的动物。

Exotic plant species not native to the area can move in and compete.

外来植物也可以被迁入并且和当地植物竞争。

Even bees brought in to pollinate crops can alter natural pollen dispersal systems of rainforest plants.

甚至被带来授粉的蜜蜂也可以改变自然界雨林植物的花粉传播系统。

On the other hand, recent studies have shown that the disruption of one aspect of the pollination cycle doesn't usually lead to the extinction of other species.

而另一方面，最近一些研究指出授粉周期中一个方面被破坏也通常不会导致其他一些物种的灭绝。

It turns out that plant-pollinator relationships are more adaptable to change than we thought.

比起我们所想的，植物和授粉者之间的关系要更能够适应变化。

So really it is hard to know just how agriculture affects the pollination of plants.

因此，我们很难真正知道到底农业是怎么影响植物授粉的。