时差N小时:鱼儿喝水吗? Do Fish Drink?

Water gets into a fish's body through osmosis, theprocess in which water diffuses from a higher to alower concentration.

水通过渗透作用进入鱼儿的身体，在这一过程中，水从高浓度的地方扩散至低浓度的地方。

For example, if there is more water outside of a cellthan inside, water will try to flow into the celluntilthere is the same concentration of water on eitherside of the cell's membrane.

比方说，如果细胞外的水多于细胞内，水就会流入细胞内，直到细胞膜内外的浓度相同。

The body of a fish acts the same way, either absorbing or losing water depending on itssurroundings.

鱼儿的身体与细胞一样，吸水还是失水取决于它生存的环境。

Whether a fish absorbs or loses water is based on the fact that all fish must maintain acertainamount of salt in their bodies to stay healthy.

不管鱼儿吸水还是失水，事实上，所有的鱼要想保持健康其体内就必须维持一定量的盐分。

Fish that live in fresh water have a higherconcentration of salt in their bodies than thesurrounding water.

淡水鱼体内盐的浓度要高于周围的水。

Consequently, water continuously flows into the fish's body to attempt to dilute the amountofsalt in the fish until it is equal to the amount of salt in the surrounding water.

因此，水就不断地进入鱼儿的体内以稀释盐份，直到鱼儿体内与外界的盐的浓度持平。

Since fish cannotallow their salt content to be diminished, their kidneys work overtime toexpel excess water in theform of urine.

因为鱼儿自身无法减少体内的盐分，所以他们的肾就要不断工作以将多余的水以尿液的形式排出体外。

Ocean fish have the opposite problem.

海鱼的问题则恰恰相反。

Surrounded by salt water, their bodies contain a relativelylower concentration of salt than theocean water.

由于被盐水包围，他们体内盐的浓度与海水相比相对较低。

In this case, osmosis causes the fish toconstantly lose water in order to equalize saltconcentration inside and outside the fish.

在这种情况下，渗透作用使得鱼儿不停地失水以平衡体内外盐的浓度。

To partially compensate for the water loss, ocean fish actually drink water through theirmouths.

为了补偿失去的部分水分，海水鱼通常要用嘴喝水。

To get rid of the excess salt they take in by drinking seawater, they excrete some saltthroughcells in their gills.

而为了去除喝海水带来的多余盐分，它们会通过腮里的细胞排出一些盐分。