科学美国人60秒 SSS 亚马逊雨林树上的声音(1)

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I’m Jeff DelViscio.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是杰夫·德尔维西奥。

Today: the final episode in our three-part sound escape to the Amazon rain forest.

今天是我们前往亚马逊热带雨林声音之旅(共三部分)的最后一集。

In today's episode, we’re going into the trees.

在今天的节目中，我们要走进雨林。

And be sure to catch the other episodes of this podcast miniseries.

一定要收看这部播客迷你剧的其他几集。

The first one was on the pink river dolphin.

第一集是粉红河豚。

The second was on the frog choruses.

第二集是青蛙合唱团。

Tim Weaver¹ is back with us to finish our Amazon audio tour.

蒂姆·韦弗回来和我们一起走完我们的亚马逊音频之旅。

And just to remind you, Tim is a professor of emergent digital practices and a multimedia² and sound artist at the University of Denver.

“提醒一下，蒂姆是丹佛大学的新兴数字实践教授，也是一名多媒体声音艺术家。

Together, we chased pink river dolphins through drowned forests.

我们一起在淹没的森林里追寻粉红河豚。

We've taken sonic strolls, very carefully, through the understory, awash in frog music.

我们小心翼翼在声波中漫步，穿过下层林叶，淹没在青蛙音乐中。

And now we ascend³ into the trees.

现在我们爬到树上。

Tim, tell us a little bit about where we’re going and what we’re going to find up there.

蒂姆，跟我们说说我们要去哪里还有我们在那里会发现什么。

“We've been through three layers of the Amazon: underwater to the forest-floor story.

“我们已经经历了亚马逊的三层：从水下到森林地面的故事。

And now we'll go up into the canopy⁴.

现在我们上到树冠上去。

It's a totally different ecosystem⁵ up there and very difficult to record up there but, again, it's incredibly biodiverse.

那里是一个完全不同的生态系统，而且那里很难记录，但是，再次强调，它的生物多样性令人难以置信。

There are mammals that live up there.

有哺乳动物生活在那里。

There's species that have yet to be discovered up there.

那里还有有待发现的物种。

And of course, birds and amphibians⁶ lay their eggs up there in the bromeliads.

当然，鸟类和两栖动物在那里的凤梨科植物里产卵。

“So the technology we’re using to do this is a small recorder that can be deployed⁷ for actually multiple months.

“所以我们用来做这件事的技术是一种可以实际部署数月的小型记录器。

So you can schedule to take a recording⁸ every half hour from midnight to two in the morning or however you want to sample.

因此，你可以安排从午夜到凌晨两点每半小时录制一次，或者以任何你想要的方式采样。

And what I was interested in testing these out with was to record howler monkeys, which change their territory every morning.

我感兴趣的是用来测试这些东西的是记录吼猴，它们每天早上都会改变它们的领地。

They, kind of ,like, set the territory [with a], you know, before dawn, and it's like the wakening of the world.

他们在黎明前定下了领地，这就像是世界的觉醒。

"And the other species that's very interesting in that canopy that is endangered and has gone extinct in North America

另一种非常有趣的物种在这个树冠中濒临灭绝，在北美已经灭绝了

is a family of woodpeckers called Campephilus woodpeckers.

是啄木鸟的一个家族，叫做红头啄木鸟。

They’re the largest in the Americas.

它们是美洲最大的。

They’re about the size of a red-tail hawk⁹.

大约有红尾鹰那么大。

They did go from the ivory bills in North America to the imperials in the sierras in Mexico,

确实从北美的象牙喙到墨西哥山脉中的帝王喙，

all the way down to southern Patagonian with the Magellanic woodpeckers, and this species is a crimson-crested.

一直到南巴塔哥尼亚的麦哲伦啄木鸟，而这个物种是一种绯红冠啄木鸟。

They’re in the Amazon.

他们在亚马逊地区。

They’re in the upper Amazon, in the cloud forests as well.

它们位于亚马逊上游，在云雾丛林中。

So you'll hear them drumming on trees.

所以你会听到他们在树上发出咚咚声。

And they’re indicative of a very healthy forest because they have to live in a tree that they can have their nests in the middle of.

它们象征着一片非常蓬勃的森林，因为它们必须生活在一棵树上，这样它们才能在中间筑巢。

So they’re large, and these are hardwood—incredible hardwood forests—so you'll hear them drumming.

它们很大，这些是硬木-难以置信的硬木森林-所以你会听到它们发出咚咚声。

“This is could be in the afternoon when the howler monkeys reset¹⁰ their territory

“这可能是在下午吼猴重新划定它们的领地，

and it just sounds like this incredible rushing of wind from the Gods coming to you

听起来就像是神令人难以置信的狂风向你袭来，

and they clear out to set their territory in the canopy at the same time so there's an inner dispersion of those two species.”

它们同时走开，在树冠上划定自己的领地，所以这两个物种有一种内在的分散。”

So how high do you have to climb to place the mics?

那么你要爬到多高才能放置麦克风呢？

“So we’re setting them in small trees that are fairly tall, so we can get up into them

“所以我们把它们放在相当高的小树上，这样我们就可以拍到它们--

—not all the way in the canopy, but we can hear the canopy.

它们不是一直在树冠上，但我们可以记录在树冠上的声音。

And they’re above the forest floor so that nothing will climb up the trees and eat them.

它们在森林地面的上方，所以没有东西会爬到树上吃掉它们。

So if we were in North America, we’d worry about bears eating them.

所以如果在北美，会担心熊会吃掉它们。

If we’re in the canopy, you would worry about things like macaws going down and being curious and cutting them open.

如果在树冠上，你会担心金刚鹦鹉俯冲下来，好奇地把它们撕开。

So you take a tree that's a smaller tree but is tall enough that it is about 12 feet off the forest floor,

你拿一棵树，一棵较小的树，但它足够高，离森林地面大约12英尺，

so you can bend it down, set it and then let it come back up.

你可以把它折弯，放好，然后让它重新直立起来。

It's above the forest floor, but the canopy is 150 feet up,

它在森林地面之上，但树冠在150英尺以上，

so we’re getting the animals in the canopy and their sound coming down to above our own head limit.

所以我们把树冠上的动物和它们的声音降到我们头顶的极限。

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 multimedia   

adj.多种手段的，多媒体的；n.多媒体

参考例句：

• Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
• Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题，从而引发了许多有益的讨论。

3 ascend   

vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上

参考例句：

• We watched the airplane ascend higher and higher.我们看着飞机逐渐升高。
• We ascend in the order of time and of development.我们按时间和发展顺序向上溯。

4 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

5 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

6 amphibians   

两栖动物( amphibian的名词复数 )； 水陆两用车； 水旱两生植物； 水陆两用飞行器

参考例句：

• The skin of amphibians is permeable to water. 两栖动物的皮肤是透水的。
• Two amphibians ferry them out over the sands. 两辆水陆两用车把他们渡过沙滩。

7 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

10 reset   

v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物

参考例句：

• As soon as you arrive at your destination,step out of the aircraft and reset your wristwatch.你一到达目的地，就走出飞机并重新设置手表时间。
• He is recovering from an operation to reset his arm.他做了一个手臂复位手术，正在恢复。