字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：北極出現甲烷剋星
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中英文稿：
Methane-Eating Microbes May Mitigate Arctic Emissions
以甲烷為餐的微生物可緩解北極碳排放

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, on average. And as permafrost becomes, well, not so perma, microbes are warming up, feasting on organic compounds in the thawed soil. The microbes then belch methane—a potent greenhouse gas. Meaning that the warming Arctic could become a big source of carbon pollution.
平均下來，北極溫度升高的速度是地球上其他地區的兩倍。並且隨著凍土層變得不再那麼堅硬，微生物也變得活躍起來，盡情享受著融土裡的有機化合物。這些微生物會釋放甲烷——一種強效的溫室氣體。這意味著日漸變暖的北極會成為碳污染的重要來源。

But maybe it won't. Because it turns out there are also a lot of microbes that like to snack on the methane waste their buddies emit. In fact, some 90 percent of the methane bubbling up through Arctic soils is already soaked up this way.
但是也可能不會那樣。因為，結果證明有許多微生物喜歡把自己朋友排出的甲烷廢物當做點心。而實際上，北極土壤中冒出的大約90%的甲烷氣體已經被這樣吸收了。

Now researchers report that they've found a new strain of methane-eating microbes in soil samples from Axel Heiberg Island, in the Canadian high Arctic. The soils on the island are not rich in carbon, meaning there's not a lot of methane waste.
現在研究者們報導說，他們在加拿大北極群島的阿克塞爾海伯格島上採集了土壤樣本裡發現了新的食甲烷的微生物菌種。該島嶼的土壤中碳含量很低，也就意味著土壤中不含有太多的甲烷垃圾。

So these still-unnamed bacteria instead harvest the gas straight out of the air. And as that air warms up, they're getting hungrier. The scientists project that as temperatures rise over the next century, the bugs could gobble up anywhere from five to 30 times the amount of methane they eat today. The study appears in The ISME Journal.
所以這些尚未名的微生物直接從空氣中採集了甲烷氣體。並且隨著空氣越暖，這些微生物也就變得越發飢餓。科學家預測，在下個世紀，隨著氣溫逐漸升高，在任何地方這些微生物食物的甲烷的含量會是今天的5至30倍。該研究成果發表在《國際微生物生態學會會刊》上。

Most Arctic permafrost—87 percent—is actually carbon-poor, minerally stuff like the soil on Axel Heiberg Island. Meaning much of the Arctic could soon be sucking up methane. It's still too early to say whether the region could actually become a carbon sink. But the researchers say that at the very least climate models need to reflect this latest nuance of our warming planet.
大部分北極凍土——大概87% ——實際上，都是像阿克塞爾海伯格島上的土壤那種礦物化的物質，並沒有什麼碳元素。也就是說，北極大部分地區可能正在吸收甲烷。現在說這片地區會變成一個 大碳坑可能為時過早。但是研究人員表示，至少氣候模型是需要反映出我們這顆正在變暖的星球上這種最近出現的細微變化的。