全球變暖致馴鹿變瘦12% 拉不動聖誕老人了大綱

研究發現，全球氣候變暖可能導致馴鹿體重下降。如果聖誕老人要招募幫手協助他到全世界發送聖誕禮物，那麼今年他最好多找幾隻。

Dragging a sleigh laden with enough presents for the world's children - not to mention a famously portly white-bearded gentleman - can be no easy feat.
滿載着全世界兒童的禮物的雪橇拖起來可不輕鬆，更別提上面還載着一位大名鼎鼎的白鬍子胖先生。

But, since time immemorial, this crucial Christmas Eve duty has been performed with distinction by a team of beloved reindeer.
但是，自古以來，一羣可愛的馴鹿都能出色完成這個聖誕夜的重任。

Soon, however, Santa Claus may have to start looking around for a stronger type of animal, as new research reveals the species is becoming increasingly puny.
不過，聖誕老人可能很快就得開始尋找更加強壯的動物了。因爲新的研究顯示，馴鹿正變得越來越瘦小。

A 16-year survey on the arctic Norwegian island of Svalbard found the reindeer there have declined in weight by an alarming 12 percent.
一項對挪威北極區域斯瓦爾巴特羣島長達16年的調查發現，這裏的馴鹿體重下降了12%，這一數字讓人震驚。

The reduction in average body-mass is being blamed on global warming.
全球變暖是馴鹿平均體重減輕的罪魁禍首。

In research presented lately at a meeting of the British Ecological Society in Liverpool, scientists will explain how rising temperatures are depriving female reindeer of nutrients during important phases of gestation.
日前，科學家們在利物浦英國生態學會的會議上展示了這項研究成果，他們將解釋在雌性馴鹿懷孕的關鍵階段，氣溫升高是如何令其失去營養的。

Snow in Svalbard typically covers the ground for eight months of the year, which, combined with low temperatures, limits grass growth to June and July.
通常，斯瓦爾巴德島一年中有八個月都被白雪覆蓋，而且氣溫極低，小草的生長期僅限於六月和七月。

But as summer temperatures have increased by around 1.5℃, pastures have become more productive, allowing female reindeer to gain more weight by the autumn and therefore to conceive more calves.
但由於夏季氣溫升高了約1.5℃，牧草地變得更茂盛，這使得雌性馴鹿到了秋天會變胖且能孕育更多小鹿。

However, warmer winters have brought with them greater rainfall which freezes when it settles on the snow, thereby locking out the reindeer from the life-sustaining food below.
然而，溫暖的冬天帶來了更多的降雨，雨水落在雪地裏會結冰，阻止馴鹿獲得冰面下維持生命的食物。

As a result, female reindeer are becoming starved, causing them to abort their calves or giving birth to much lighter young.
結果，飢餓的雌性馴鹿就會流產或者誕下體重較輕的小鹿。

The average mass of an adult reindeer in 1994, when the survey began, was 55kg, but by 2010 it had dropped to 48kg.
1994年調查開始時，一頭成年馴鹿的平均體重爲55公斤，但是到2010年，成年馴鹿的平均體重已經下降到48公斤。

Professor Steve Albon, an ecologist at the James Hatton Institute in Aberdeen, said that, because the mammals have a relatively high surface-area-to-volume ratio, they are no particularly energy efficient.
史蒂夫•阿爾博教授是阿伯丁詹姆士赫頓研究院的生態學家。他表示，這種哺乳動物的表面積體積比相對較高，他們沒有特殊的節能功能。

Reindeer can often access the meagre food sources beneath the snow by clearing it away with their antlers, but they cannot break through the hard ice.
馴鹿通常用鹿角清除積雪，獲得下面寥寥無幾的食物，但他們無法弄破堅冰。

Without access to the food in winter, calves are being born far lighter than they should be.
雌性馴鹿冬天吃不到食物，生下來的小鹿就比應有的體重輕得多。

Numbers of reindeer have also soared in the past 20 years, meaning that those which are born are facing greater competition for food.
馴鹿的數量在過去的20年裏飆升，這意味着生下來的小鹿面臨着更加激烈的食物競爭。

"The implications are that there may well be more smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the coming decades, but possibly at risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground," said Professor Albon.
阿爾博教授稱，“這背後的含義是，雖然未來幾十年裏很可能出現更多瘦小的馴鹿，但地上的冰面越來越大，它們因此存在滅絕的風險。”

Despite the gloomy findings, reindeer appear to be suffering less from the impact of climate change than some other arctic species.
儘管這一研究發現很悲觀，但是馴鹿受氣候變化的影響似乎比其他北極生物要小。

Last week the scientists warned that a third of the world's polar bears could disappear in the next 40 years to melting Arctic sea ice.
科學家們上週警告稱，隨着北冰洋冰面的消融，全球三分之一的北極熊可能在未來40年內消失。

Vocabulary

meager: 土地不毛的
gestation: 懷孕