Sea Garbage Shows Ocean Boundaries
用垃圾定位海洋边界
Floating refuse reveals ocean currents that in turn show where the world's oceans mix and where they stay relatively discrete. Karen Hopkin reports
那些随着洋流漂流的海洋垃圾反而揭示出世界各大海洋在哪里融汇，又在哪里相对分离。
撰文/播音 卡伦•霍普京（Karen Hopkin）
翻译 王宁
审校 李轩
At some point, we all had to memorize the names of Earth’s oceans. But in reality all this water is connected. So how do we know where one body begins and another ends? Just follow the trash—because the location of seafaring garbage can be used to define the oceans’ borders. That’s according to a study in the journal Chaos. [Gary Froyland, Robyn M. Stuart and Erik van Sebille, How well-connected is the surface of the global ocean?]
在某些时候，当我们提及地球的海洋，我们总是会想4个不同的名字，并且不得不去把它们区别开，但是事实上这些水是相通在一起的，那么我们怎么知道一片海洋从哪里开始，又从哪里结束呢？一种方法便是——跟随垃圾，因为海洋垃圾的位置可以用来辨别海洋的边界，根据一项在《混乱》杂志的研究。
Historically speaking, the planet’s waters have been partitioned into discrete oceans for reasons that are geographical, historical, even cultural. To approach the problem from a more anatomical perspective, researchers came up with a model of how surface waters move. Which is where the rubbish comes in. Flotillas of flotsam are formed by currents that gather the garbage in large floating patches. But the currents also create barriers that minimize mixing between different ocean regions.
从历史角度来看，地球上的水被隔离为独立的几个区域主要源于地理原因，历史原因，甚至自然原因。为了通过一种更加结构化的方式来解决分区问题，研究者提出了一个地表水的流动模型，这就是海洋垃圾大显身手的地方。洋流会海洋垃圾聚集在一起，从而形成漂浮的"小岛"，但是这些洋流同时也会形成了阻止海洋交融的屏障。
By modeling these currents, researchers have redefined the borders of the ocean basins based on how readily their waters mix. They find, for example, that a sliver of the Indian Ocean is really part of the south Pacific.
通过模拟这些洋流，研究者已经根据水体的融合难易程度重新定义了各大海洋的边界，例如，它们发现印度洋的一条支流实际上是南太平洋的一部分。
The work should help track ocean debris or even the spread of spilled oil. And it could change the way we see our seas.
这项成果可能可以帮助我们跟踪海洋废弃物甚至预知泄漏原油的扩散，它或许会改变我们看待我们的海洋的方式。
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