简介：
Climate Change Could Cause Deepwater Die-Off
气候变化灭绝海底生物
By 2100, climate change could be responsible for a massive die-off on the ocean floor, due to a paucity of nutrients floating down from the surface. Christopher Intagliata reports
从大洋表面沉到海底的营养物质是许多海底生物的生命食粮，然而气候变化使得海洋表面的营养物质锐减，到2100年，大量生长在海床上的生物将由于气候变化而消亡。
撰写/播音 克里斯多夫•因塔格里塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译 尹秋媛
Warmer, more acidic oceans are bad news for tropical coral reefs: the coral becomes stunted and bleached. But climate change's oceanic effects could go, literally, much deeper than that—killing off creatures that live four miles down, in permanent darkness. So says a study in the journal Global Change Biology. [Daniel O. B. Jones et al.,Global reductions in seafloor biomass in response to climate change]
温暖的酸化海水会导致珊瑚发育不良与白化，所以在热带珊瑚礁眼里，海水的变暖与变酸绝不是什么好消息。但是，为气候变化所害的海洋生物远不止珊瑚一种，全球变暖还会灭绝大量生活在深海底四英里的生物，使海底陷入永远的黑暗之中。这项研究发表在《全球变化生物学》杂志上。）
Researchers modeled nutrient flow in the oceans under several greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. And they found that, by the year 2100, nutrients at the ocean's surface may dwindle, leaving fewer leftovers to float down to organisms below. The result could be a massive die-off of life on the seafloor, like sea cucumbers, starfish, urchins and worms. Under a severe emissions scenario, the loss of marine life globally would equal the biomass of the entire human race.
研究人员模拟了若干个温室气体排放的情况下海洋中传递营养物质的洋流的情况。他们发现，到2100年，海洋表层的营养物质将变得稀少，能够转移到海底的更是少之甚少。这将造成诸如海参、海星、海胆和蠕虫的大量海底生物的灭绝。如果温室气体的排放量极大，海洋生物的灭绝数量将非常惊人，足以等同于整个人类种族的生物量。
One bright spot in the deep darkness: the exotic tube worms and giant clams that thrive at hydrothermal vents don't need surface nutrients to survive. But plenty of other species do, the researchers say—and we don't even know much of what's down there. This study makes one thing clear: when it comes to climate change and the oceans, we're already in deep.
深海中尚存的一丝光明，是生活在深海热泉喷口周围的外来管虫和巨蚌，它们不需要海洋表面的营养物质，因此还有存活的可能。然而研究人员说，其他的许多生物——包括大量仍然未知的物种——将难逃一劫。这项研究向我们证明了一件事：当气候变化涉及海洋，必定会产生“深”刻的影响。
（题图来源：Nature）
