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This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The tropics are well known for their biodiversity. But another hotspot? Mountains. Like the Hengduan Mountains, in south-central China.
"It'll look very much like this kind of familiar temperate alpine system, but the plant diversity there is off the charts."
Rick Ree is associate curator of botany at the Field Museum in Chicago.
These mountains harbor a third of all China's plant species. And one hypothesis for mountain biodiversity is that mountain uplift creates new climates and habitats. "You'll see coniferous forests, limestone and granite crossed glaciers, and glaciers fed rivers and alpine meadows."
Plants take advantage of the new niches, and diversify.
Now Ree and his colleague, Yaowu Xing, have evidence supporting the idea for connection between mountain building and biodiversity. They used DNA data to build an evolutionary tree of plants in the Hengduan. Then they calibrated the tree with fossil data. And they saw an explosion in diversification around eight million years ago—right when uplift occurred. The results are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
So if new microclimates create new opportunities for diversification: what about global climate change? "If we look back on the history of life, one very striking pattern that we can see is that evolutionary diversification is pretty strongly associated with changing conditions. The flipside to change is that some species go extinct and some species diversify. So we're faced with both prospects I think going forward."
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
热带地区以其生物多样性闻名。另一个以生物多样性闻名的地区是哪里？答案是山区。比如中国东南部的横断山区。
“横断山区的情况看上去很像常见的温带高山气候，但其植物多样性却尤为惊人。”
里克·瑞是芝加哥自然博物馆植物学馆的副馆长。
这片山区蕴藏着全中国三分之一的植物物种。对于山区生物多样性丰富的原因，其中一种假设认为山脉隆升创造了新的气候和栖息地。“你会在在冰川、冰川河流和高山草甸中看到针叶林以及裸露在外的石灰岩和花岗岩。”
植物会利用新的生态位和多样性。
现在瑞和他的同事邢耀武（音译）找到了支持造山运动与生物多样性相关的证据。他们利用DNA数据构建了横断山脉的植物演化树。然后，他们用化石资料对演化树进行校准。他们发现，大约800万年前，那里的生物多样化大爆发，而那时正是横断山脉上升之际。这一研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院报》上。
如果新的微气候为多样化创造了新机会：那全球气候变化会带来什么影响？“如果我们回顾一下生命的历史，就会发现我们能看到的一种引人注目的模式，就是进化多样化与环境变化密切相关。改变的反面，就是一些物种灭绝，而另一些物种变得多样化。因此，我认为我们面临着两种前景。”
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. be known for 以…闻名的；
例句：He is known for his political savvy and strong management skills.
他以睿智的政治头脑和强势的管理手腕出名。
2. take advantage of 利用；
例句：I intend to take full advantage of this trip to buy the things we need.
我打算充分利用这次旅行来购买我们所需的物品。
3. look back 追忆；回顾；
例句：They can look back on their endeavours with pride.
他们可以骄傲地回首过去付出的努力。
4. be faced with 面临；面对；摆在…面前；
例句：The young man is faced with a stark choice.
这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
