一团太平洋海水是如何杀死100万只海鸟的

一团太平洋海水是如何杀死100万只海鸟的

Scientists have finally solved the mystery of what suddenly killed tens of thousands of birds a few years ago: It was “The Blob.”

科学家们终于解开了几年前导致数万只鸟类突然死亡的神秘原因:那就是“一团东西”。

Researchers were baffled when as many as 1 million common murres — an abundant breed of North Pacific seabird — died at sea between summer 2015 and spring 2016, with 62,000 of their starved bodies washing up on California and Alaska beaches.

2015年夏季至2016年春季期间，多达100万只普通海鸦(一种丰富的北太平洋海鸟品种)在海上死亡，其中6.2万具饥饿的尸体被冲到加利福尼亚和阿拉斯加的海滩上，这让研究人员感到困惑。

Now, new research published Wednesday in the journal Plos One explains why.

周三发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》(Plos One)杂志上的一项新研究解释了其中的原因。

The mass die-off coincided “with the most powerful marine heatwave on record,” the study says, creating “an enormous volume of ocean water (the ‘Blob’) from California to Alaska with temperatures” significantly higher than average. The hot water killed off the plankton species the birds eat, reducing their food supply and causing them to starve.

该研究称，大规模死亡与“有记录以来最强烈的海洋热浪”同时发生，造成了“从加利福尼亚到阿拉斯加的大量海水(“一团”)，温度明显高于平均水平。热水杀死了这些鸟吃的浮游生物，减少了它们的食物供应，导致它们饿死。

Sea lions, puffins and whales were also negatively impacted — but the murres were hit hardest. Although seabirds are known to have periodic die-offs, this one was far larger than the typical event.

海狮、海雀和鲸鱼也受到了负面影响，但海狮受到的影响最大。虽然大家都知道海鸟会有周期性的死亡，但这一次的死亡人数远远超过了通常的死亡数目。

More than 4,600 of the birds’ carcasses washed up on one beach alone during the Blob’s reign. It is unknown how long the bird population will need to recover from the deaths.

在恐怖海水统治期间，仅在一个海滩上就冲上了4600多只鸟的尸体。目前还不清楚鸟类数量需要多长时间才能从死亡中恢复。

“The magnitude and scale of this failure has no precedent,” said John Piatt, lead study author and a research biologist at the US Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center, in a press release. “It was astonishing and alarming, and a red-flag warning about the tremendous impact sustained ocean warming can have on the marine ecosystem.”

这项研究的主要作者、美国地质调查局阿拉斯加科学中心的研究生物学家约翰·皮亚特在一份新闻稿中说:“这次失败的数量和规模是史无前例的。”“令人震惊和担忧的，是关于持续的海洋变暖可能对海洋生态系统产生巨大影响的红旗警告。”

Researchers began suspecting that warmer ocean temperatures were the cause for the murres’ deaths soon after they occurred, but have only now confirmed it. “If tens of thousands of them are dying, it’s because there’s no fish out there, anywhere, over a very large area,” Piatt announced in 2017, saying unusually warm water temperatures were likely to blame.

研究人员开始怀疑海洋温度升高是穆尔夫妇死亡的原因，但直到现在才得到证实。“如果数以万计的鱼类正在死亡，那是因为在非常大的区域内，任何地方都没有鱼，”皮亚特在2017年宣布，并表示异常温暖的海水温度可能是罪魁祸首。