听力文本

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
One of the consequences of a warming world is that high mountain habitats, which used to be too chilly for trees, are heating up. "There is now newly available real estate above what we call tree line—the sort of literal line in the sand above which trees can't grow because it's too cold. But now it's not."
Brian Smithers is an ecologist at U.C. Davis. He compares this slow-moving migration to land-grabs back in pioneer times. "You know, they fired the guns and all the settlers made a mad dash to claim their stake. It's that, but if everybody were crawling on their bellies or something like that instead."
Smithers is studying this upslope race among bristlecone pines. These trees can live for more than 5,000 years—making them the oldest individual organisms on Earth. Many of them eke out a living in dry, rocky soils, on windblown ridgelines around 11,000 feet, in eastern California and Nevada. "They look like the worst bonsai tree imaginable. They just look gnarled and twisted, something that looks like it's taken a beating for 5,000 years and still living."

So, as tree line rises, these giant bonsais are following. But Smithers says the ancient trees now have a competitor—a species called limber pines. The limbers are passing the bristlecones at tree line, sprouting seedlings in that fresh real estate upslope more quickly. 'Quickly' being a relative term here. "It's the tortoise and the slightly faster tortoise." Smithers documents the race in the journal Global Change Biology.
The leapfrogging limber pines could put bristlecones in a bind, hemmed in by competing seedlings upslope, and hotter temperatures downslope. And that, Smithers says, would have long-lasting consequences. "You know, we talk about the effects of climate change happening on scales of 100 years. What's going to happen by 2100. But in 5,000 years someone will be able to go to this stand and say, oh it looks like this because people made climate change happen 5,000 years ago. You know, it just changes the scale, when we talk about the effects of climate change." Assuming, that is, we humans stick around long enough to notice.
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ccO3l=)Au=&1uZmi^5I。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔rJI]WQc_%|oy。
全球变暖的其中一个后果是，对树木来说曾经过于寒冷的高山环境正在逐渐升温4KH0bFuZvGOwENCHg。“现在，在我们称为“林木线”的上方出现了新的可用生长空间，这种线类似于分界线，由于过于寒冷，树木在该线之上无法生长]pureGoTDF=aIUPz。但是，现在情况已经改变Jab2#t_cL^+I。”
加州大学戴维斯分校的生态学家布莱恩·史密瑟斯说到5a7J3TRi|elcni。他将这种缓慢迁移与开拓时期的土地掠夺进行了比较TA_ok0EFwIm24TRw~R。“他们开了火，当时所有开拓者都在疯狂地占领地盘N*C.p2m]#zgkt。事实就是这样，但是如果所有人都匍匐前进，或是替换成会爬的东西会怎么样？”
史密瑟斯正在研究狐尾松之间的上升竞赛3Li5#SY4O%*4GRZZ5nJ9。这些树的寿命可超过5000年，这使它们成为地球上最古老的生物个体8,Z|,(fxiHm。在加州东部和内华达州干燥的石质土以及约1.1万英尺高的风蚀山脊线上，许多狐尾松在勉强度日=Z;zfy+nQN,tda5u[rx9。“它们看起来像是你能想得到的最糟糕的盆景树i+YDJxfOap)y。这些树有很多节瘤，而且形状扭曲，看上去像过去5000年一直在挨打，但依然在存活c!;2)oZGAX^^5X1P.(=。”
因此，随着林木线的上升，这些巨型盆景也开始不断长高Wutkjsl(ixp.+c。但是史密瑟斯说这些古树现在有了一个竞争者，那是一种名为柔枝松的树种!vA57dTW]@mxuk。柔枝松正在林木线上超越狐尾松，以更快的速度将幼苗蔓延至上升的新空间uV+SEL.fze)i*PY。而这种“快”是一种相对的说法9YNGv81%nh+i@#。“那就像乌龟与稍快些的乌龟进行的比赛M].3zQCaL%r~4bSj&。”史密瑟斯记录了这种比赛，并将记录发表在《全球变化生态学》期刊上XquBO3lxw##Vy。
赶超的柔枝松可能让狐尾松陷入困境，上方有竞争者的幼苗，而下方是升高的温度qv1eHEcm-At。史密瑟斯认为，这种情况会带来持久的影响NjlhyMq2[+。“我们在说的是以百年为尺度的气候变化影响zSt[zjQ4rp。即2100年时会出现的影响ib(P9gb^4PT。但在5000年后，可能有人能走进这片林木并说：哦，因为5000年前的人造成的气候氧化，这些林木现在成了这个样子)MK*+%=o_J。在我们谈论气候变化的影响时，只是尺度改变了&(C&.Ys@T+uq。”也就是说，假设我们逗留的时间足够长，我们就能注意到这个问题9&U*,_6BfCjBSAE5。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学_U+oh_5)sCgb。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔[RfmI#J5Nei8+gFtEG0e。

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. heat up 变热；
例句：In the afternoon sun, the sand on the beach began to heat up.
在午后阳光的照射下，海滩上的沙开始变热9,R%47RNcWTF。
2. eke out 使…的供应持久；节约使用；
例句：Many workers can only eke out their redundancy money for about 10 weeks.
很多工人手头的遣散费仅够维持10个星期左右X~iv_)c[m[Rk。
3. put sth. in a bind 左右为难的境地；进退两难的境地；
例句：Their refusal to sign the contract has put us in a bind.
他们拒绝在合同上签字，这使我们陷入困境R=|9dZnzv_5。
4. stick around 呆在原处(等待)；
例句：Stick around a while and see what develops.
呆上一会儿，看看会发生什么Z.vl+iFoU!U,@。