城市清洁工—虫虫特工队
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2015-01-25
Big Apple's Insects Eat Streets Clean
城市清洁工—虫虫特工队
Researchers working in New York City found that hungry urban arthropods help dispose of tons of edible trash. Allie Wilkinson reports
纽约市的研究人员发现饥饿的节肢动物竟然帮助解决了数吨食品垃圾。
撰文 艾莉•威尔金森（Allie Wilkinson）
翻译 王宁
审校 李轩
Rather than cringing at the next beetle or wasp in your way, you might want to thank them—for helping to keep city streets clean.
读完本文，也许 下次碰到甲壳虫或黄蜂时，你将不会害怕，反而会感谢他们保持了城市街道的清洁。
Researchers from North Carolina State University working in New York City found that hungry urban arthropods play a significant role in the disposal of trash. For example, in a small section of Manhattan called the Broadway/West Street corridor, insects consume the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs a year that would otherwise be lying in the street. And that’s assuming the bugs stop chowing down in winter.
在纽约市工作的北卡莱诺那州立大学的研究人员发现饥饿的节肢动物在垃圾清理问题中具有举足轻重的作用，例如，在曼哈顿百老汇西街走廊的一段路，昆虫每年会“消费”掉相当于60000个热狗的食品垃圾，这还是在这些小虫子冬天不会大快朵颐的假设下。
To assess how much discarded food bugs got rid of, the researchers placed measured amounts of hot dogs, potato chips and cookies at 21 park sites and 24 street medians. Contrary to their prediction, location played an even bigger role in garbage consumption than biodiversity did—insects gobbled up two to three times more food in the street medians than they did in the parks.
为了估算出虫子清除了多少丢弃的食物，研究人员在21个公园和24条街道中心放置了一定量的热狗，薯片和饼干。与他们的预测大相径庭，地点因素对垃圾“消费”的影响程度比生物多样性因素更大，街道中心昆虫的“消费”量至少是公园里昆虫的三倍。
The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology. [Elsa Youngsteadt et al,Habitat and species identity, not diversity, predict the extent of refuse consumption by urban arthropods]
这一研究成果发表在了《全球变化生物学》杂志上
If all that garbage disposal still does not make you an arthropod admirer, then consider this: by competing with larger pests for resources, insects help keep rat populations down. There’s some food for thought.
如果虫虫们帮你解决了垃圾仍然无法让你为之“倾心”，那么请仔细想像一下：通过资源竞争，虫虫们还会降低老鼠的数量呢。
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©2011- 版权所有：中国数字科技馆
未经书面许可任何人不得复制或镜像
京ICP备11000850号-1 京公网安备11010502039775号
信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台
未经书面许可任何人不得复制或镜像
京ICP备11000850号-1
京公网安备11010502039775号 信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台