Rainforests rule
熱帶雨林法則

by Claire Powell
克萊爾?鮑威爾

A world like no other – perhaps this is the best way to describe the world of the rainforest. No rainforest is exactly the same – yet most rainforests are now distributed in the small land area 22.5 degrees north and 22.5 degrees south of the Equator, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. You can find tropical rainforests in South America and Indonesia. Other rainforests flourish further from the Equator, in Thailand and Sri Lanka.
獨(dú)一無(wú)二——這或許是對(duì)熱帶雨林最為貼切的描述了。盡管大部分的熱帶雨林都位于南北回歸線之間，分布在赤道以南和以北22.5度內(nèi)的小片陸地上，但世界上的熱帶雨林都各有所異。你既可以在南美和印尼尋覓到熱帶雨林蹤跡，也能在赤道附近的赤道和斯里蘭卡看見(jiàn)它們的倩影。

Despite occupying a relatively small area, rainforests have a colossal role to play in maintaining the world as we know it. Tropical rainforests are home to a rich, colourful variety of medicinal plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of Britain! 480 varieties of trees may be found in just one hectare of rainforest. These forests sustain around 50% of all the species on Earth, and offer a way of life to many people living in and around the forest.
盡管只占據(jù)了相當(dāng)小的區(qū)域，但是熱帶雨林在維持整個(gè)世界的生態(tài)平衡中所扮演的角色可是非同小可。他們蘊(yùn)藏了豐富多彩的藥用植物、食物以及鳥(niǎo)禽猛獸。你可以想象嗎，僅僅亞馬遜灌木叢所存在的螞蟻種類(lèi)比整個(gè)英國(guó)的都要多！在熱帶雨林中，你甚至可以在一公頃的面積內(nèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)480種樹(shù)木。這些雨林維持著全球50%的物種生存，并且給很多雨林區(qū)域內(nèi)的人們提供了生存之道。

Rainforests are the lungs of the planet – storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
熱帶雨林就是地球的肺——它吸納了大量的二氧化碳，并制造了全球氧氣的很大部分。熱帶雨林有著自己完善的生態(tài)體系以維持自身的存在；高大的樹(shù)木生長(zhǎng)出的枝節(jié)和樹(shù)葉形成了大大的華蓋，既保護(hù)了自己，也保護(hù)了一些小型植被和雨林中的動(dòng)物，讓它們免受驟雨、暴曬和颶風(fēng)的侵?jǐn)_。

Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is a deliberate tactic to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects like caterpillars. To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump, fly or glide across the gaps. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled leaves and bushes, like in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where leaves decompose into food for the trees and other forest life.
驚異的是，雖然雨林中的樹(shù)木生長(zhǎng)地如此巨大，但是樹(shù)與樹(shù)之間的枝節(jié)和樹(shù)葉只會(huì)緊密相連，而非相互接觸?？茖W(xué)家認(rèn)為這是一種深思熟慮之后的策略，以此來(lái)預(yù)防樹(shù)木類(lèi)疾病的傳播，以及降低像毛毛蟲(chóng)這樣的食葉昆蟲(chóng)的成活率。生存在這樣的雨林之中的動(dòng)物需要在叢林的間隙之中攀爬跳躍，和飛翔滑翔。熱帶雨林的地面其實(shí)是相當(dāng)干凈的，而并非如電影里面所拍攝的一樣堆滿了紊亂不堪的樹(shù)枝樹(shù)葉。落葉最終會(huì)墜落于地面，并分解為樹(shù)木和其他雨林生命的食物。

They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75% of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal – and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain – your umbrella may protect you in a shower, but it won’t keep you dry if there is a full rainstorm. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet. The humidity of large rainforests contributes to the formation of rainclouds that may travel to other countries in need of rain.
熱帶雨林這名字可不是白叫的。雨林可以自我形成所需降雨的75%。每年80英寸的降水量對(duì)于熱帶雨林來(lái)說(shuō)再普通不過(guò)了，有些區(qū)域每年降水量甚至最多可以達(dá)到430英寸。這些可都是貨真價(jià)實(shí)的降水——雨傘能保你在陣雨中安然無(wú)恙，但是在一場(chǎng)真正的暴風(fēng)雨中，雨傘可就有心無(wú)力了。僅僅兩個(gè)小時(shí)，河流可以上升十到二十英尺。而龐大的熱帶雨林濕氣則可以形成雨云，這些雨云則可以飄往那些缺雨水的國(guó)家。

Worryingly, rainforests around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, thanks to deforestation, river pollution, and soil erosion as land is being claimed for agriculture and trees are felled for wood. A few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered as much as 12% of the land surface on Earth, but today this has fallen to less than 5.3%.
令人擔(dān)憂的是，全球范圍內(nèi)的熱帶雨林正在以驚人的速度消亡。這些都是由于森林采伐、河流污染、水土流水、農(nóng)業(yè)用地開(kāi)墾以及伐木所造成的。幾千年前，熱帶雨林在地球上的覆蓋率為12%，而如今這個(gè)數(shù)字已經(jīng)跌至了5.3%。

We can only hope that the world governments work together with environmentalists and businesses to use their environmental knowledge and power to preserve the rainforests – awe-inspiring, beautiful and vital for our existence.
我們所能期盼的則是世界政府可以和環(huán)境保護(hù)者以及商業(yè)人士齊心協(xié)力，運(yùn)用他們的環(huán)境知識(shí)和權(quán)力來(lái)保護(hù)熱帶雨林。因?yàn)樗麄儾粌H是如此令人驚嘆和美麗的存在，也對(duì)我們?nèi)祟?lèi)生存有著生死攸關(guān)的作用！

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