I've been looking at ocean biodiversity, that's the diversity of species that live in the world's oceans.
我最近一直在关注海洋生物多样性，也就是生活在世界海洋中的生物的多样性。
About 20 years ago biologists developed the idea of what they called 'biodiversity hotspots'.
大约20年前，生物学家提出了他们称为“生物多样性热点地区”的概念。
These are the areas which have the greatest mixture of species, so one example is Madagascar.
这些地区拥有最大的混合物种群体，其中一个例子就是马达加斯加。
These hotspots are significant because they allow us to locate key areas for focusing efforts at conservation.
这些热点地区至关重要，因为它们给了我们锁定关键地区集中力量进行生物保护的机会。
Biologists can identify hotspots on land, fairly easily,
生物学家们能够相当轻易地辨认出陆地上的热点地区，
but until recently, very little was known about species distribution and diversity in the oceans,
但是直到最近之前，人们对海洋中的生物分布和多样性都知之甚少，
and no one even knew if hotspots existed there.
甚至没人知道海洋中是否存在这样的热点地区。
Then a Canadian biologist called Boris Worm did some research in 2005 on data on ocean species that he got from the fishing industry.
接着在2005年，一个叫Boris Worm的加拿大生物学家从捕鱼业中获得了关于海洋物种的数据，并对其进行了研究。
Worm located five hotspots for large ocean predators like sharks, and looked at what they had in common.
Worm锁定了海洋中像鲨鱼这样的大型食肉动物生活的五个热点地区，然后研究了它们的共同点。
The main thing he'd expected to find was that they had very high concentrations of food
他预计会出现的主要共同点是，在这些地区都有高度集中的食物来源，
but to his surprise that was only true for four of the hotspots — the remaining hotspot was quite badly off in that regard.
但是令他感到意外的是，这一观点只适用于其中四个热点地区，剩下的那个地区在这方面境况十分不佳。
But what he did find was that in all cases,
不过他在所有案例中都发现了的一件事是，
the water at the surface of the ocean had relatively high temperatures even when it was cool at greater depths,
即使那些海域深处的水温较低，但它们表层水温都相对较高。
so this seemed to be a factor in supporting a diverse range of these large predators.
这一点似乎能够成为支持大型海洋食肉动物多样化分布的因素。
However, this wasn't enough on its own, because he also found that the water needed to have enough oxygen in it
但是只有这一点还远远不够，因为他还发现海水中需要饱含足够的氧气，
so these two factors seemed necessary to support the high metabolic rate of these large fish.
于是这两个因素一起便足够证明这些大型鱼类的高代谢率观点了。
A couple of years later, in 2007, a researcher called Lisa Ballance, who was working in California,
两年之后，在2007年，一位在加利福尼亚州工作的研究人员，Lisa Ballance，
also started looking for ocean hotspots, but not for fish
也开始寻找海洋热点地区。不过她感兴趣的不是鱼类，
what she was interested in was marine mammals things like seals.
而是海洋哺乳动物，比如海豹。
And she found three places in the oceans which were hotspots,
她在海洋中找到了三个热点地区，
and what these had in common was that these hotspots were all located at boundaries between ocean currents,
它们的共同之处在于，所有的这些热点地区都位于洋流的交界处。
and this seems to be the sort of place that has lots of the plankton that some of these species feed on.
这些海域中似乎拥有大量的浮游生物可供海洋哺乳动物食用。
So now people who want to protect the species that are endangered need to get as much information as possible.
如今人们想要保护濒危物种的话，就要尽可能多地获取相关信息。
For example, there's an international project called the Census of Marine Life.
举个例子来说，有一个国际工程叫做Census of Marine Life。
They've been surveying oceans all over the world, including the Arctic.
他们调查了世界上所有的海洋，包括北极地区的海洋。
One thing they found there which stunned other researchers was that there were large numbers of species which live below the ice
他们在那儿发现了令其他研究人员瞠目结舌的一件事，那就是冰层之下生活着大量的生物物种，
sometimes under a layer up to 20 meters thick.
有些甚至生活在20米厚的冰层之下。
Some of these species had never been seen before.
这些物种中有些人们之前从未见过。
They've even found species of octopus living in these conditions.
他们甚至还发现一种章鱼也生活在这种环境中。
And other scientists working on the same project,
其他科学家也从事同样的研究，
but researching very different habitats on the ocean floor,
但他们研究的是海底的一些非常与众不同的栖息地。
have found large numbers of species congregating around volcanoes, attracted to them by the warmth and nutrients there.
他们发现有大量生物聚集在海底火山周围，吸引它们过来的是那里温暖的海水和丰富的营养物质。