Dendrochronology

　　樹木年代學

　　Not always the ring of truth

　　年輪不一定反映事實

　　The use of wood to assess past environmentsneeds care

　　通過樹木判斷過去的環境時要小心了

　　TREE rings are Mother Nature s history books.

　　年輪是大自然的史書。

　　Researchers often look at chemicals stored in them when trying to reconstruct pastenvironments.

　　在試圖重現過去的環境時，研究人員經常會從年輪中所含的化學物質入手。

　　Like all history books, though, they can be unreliable.

　　然而就和所有的史書一樣，年輪也并不怎么靠譜。

　　And in the case of one particular chemical of interest, mercury, Jose Antonio RodriguezMartin of the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, in Madrid,and his colleagues have just shown how unreliable they are.

　　通過其關注的一個特別的化學物質-汞，西班牙國家農業與食物研究及技術學會的何塞安東尼奧羅德里格斯馬丁及其同事便剛剛證明了年輪多么不靠譜。

　　Dr Rodriguez Martin was studyingpines on La Palma, in the Canary Islands.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士一直在研究拉帕爾馬島上的松樹。

　　He knew that Hoyo Negro, one of the island s volcanoes, had erupted violently in 1949, andbelieved that the clouds of ash and explosive ejections of rock from the eruption haddestroyed all of the pines nearby.

　　他知道該島上的霍約內格羅火山曾于1949年發生過劇烈噴發，并認為噴發產生的火山灰及迸散的巖石摧毀了附近所有的松樹。

　　However, as he describes in Naturwissenschaften, when he and his team examined the area,they were stunned to discover a revenant from this cataclysm just 50 metres from the crater.

　　然而，正如他在《自然科學》雜志上所說，當他和自己的團隊對該區域進行調查時，在離火山口僅50米的地方發現了一棵劫后余生的松樹，讓他們震驚不已。

　　Like a battle-scarred soldier, this now-great pine had many half-healed wounds in its trunk.

　　就像一名身經百戰的士兵，這棵現已長成參天大樹的松樹的樹干上疤痕累累。

　　It had survived those. It did not, however, survive Dr Rodriguez Martin s axe.

　　這些傷口沒讓它倒下，但卻沒有逃過羅德里格斯馬丁博士的斧頭。

　　He reluctantly felled it and, for comparison, collected a tree of similar age that wasgrowing 400 metres from the eruption site, and another that was 16km away.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士忍痛將它放倒，并分別從離噴發點400米及16千米處砍倒兩棵與其樹齡相同的松樹進行比較。

　　One unpleasant element often ejected in volcanic eruptions is mercury.

　　火山噴發時經常會噴射出一種不怎么好的元素-汞。

　　That was certainly the case in 1949, as soil-sampling showed.

　　正如土壤采樣所示，1949年的火山噴發確實釋放出了汞元素。

　　The question was, how much of it had got into the trees

　　但問題是，有多少進入了樹體中?

　　Mercury falling

　　脫落的汞

　　When he analysed the survivor s scar tissue Dr Rodriguez Martin found high levels of themetal in it:

　　當羅德里格斯馬丁博士分析了這棵幸存的樹上的疤痕組織后，他發現其中的汞元素含量很高：

　　more than 22 micrograms per kilogram of wood.

　　每公斤木材中超過22毫克。

　　That was not surprising, given that this tissue would have formed soon after the eruption.

　　這并不出人意料，因為該組織是在火山噴發不久后形成的。

　　What was surprising was that the wood of the survivor tree s rings had only 2.3 microgramsof mercury per kilogram in it.

　　出人意料的是這棵幸存的樹中年輪的木質中每公斤僅含2.3毫克汞。

　　More surprising still, the rings of the other two trees were mercury-free, despite there beingmercury in nearby soil.

　　更讓人大跌眼鏡的是，其他兩棵書的年輪中汞含量為零，盡管其附近的土壤中含有汞。

　　Tree rings are made of tissue called xylem.

　　構成年輪的組織被稱為木質部。

　　This is a set of channels that carry water and minerals from the soil to the leaves, so itscomposition might be expected to reflect what is in the soil.

　　這是從土壤中將水合礦物質輸送至葉片的一組通道，所以其組分應該能夠反映出土壤中的組分。

　　A second set of channels, the phloem, found just under a tree s bark, carries the products ofphotosynthesis to the roots.

　　第二組通道叫韌皮部，就長在樹皮之下，它將光合作用的產物輸送到樹的根部。

　　This tissue, however, is not preserved from year to year.

　　然而該組織每年都會更新。

　　When Dr Rodriguez Martin sampled the phloem of the trees he had chopped down, he found itmuch richer in mercury than their xylem.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士對被他砍倒的樹的韌皮部采樣后，他發現韌皮部的汞含量比木質部的要高。

　　Phloem from the tree at the eruption site had 9.5 micrograms of the metal per kilogram.

　　位于噴發點的樹上的韌皮部中每千克含有9.5毫克汞。

　　The two more distant trees had 2.9 and 2.0 respectively.

　　另外兩棵較遠的樹的韌皮部每千克汞含量分別為2.9及2.0。

　　The explanation for the discrepancy lay in the trees bark.

　　產生這種差異的原因就藏在樹皮之中。

　　This had similar mercury levels to the phloem.

　　樹皮的汞含量與韌皮部相近。

　　What Dr Rodriguez Martin reckons is going on is that trees are using their bark, which theyshed continually, as a waste-disposal system.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士認為是這么回事：樹木將其不斷脫落樹皮當做一種廢物處理系統。

　　Mercury is carried there by the phloem and selectively deposited in it, rather than in theplants more permanent parts.

　　汞通過韌皮部被轉運到樹皮中，有選擇性地在其中沉積，而非在自己不易更新的部位沉積。

　　The metal is then got rid of when the bark is sloughed off.

　　然后當樹皮脫落時，其中的汞也隨之被除去。

　　That makes it invisible to researchers who come along later. What happens to mercury,moreover, might well happen to other toxic materials.

　　這使隨后而來的研究人員無法發現汞的存在。而且，在汞身上出現的情況很可能也會出現在其他有毒物質上。

　　That could throw the calculations of palaeoecologists severely out of kilter.

　　這會讓古生態學家的推測嚴重失準。

　　All of which is a caution to those who read the Book of Tree Rings for clues to what happenedin the past.

　　對于那些在年輪史書中尋找線索來了解過去發生了什么的人來說，所有這些都是一個警示。

　　Trees, it seems, are as good as rewriting history as people are.

　　樹木，似乎和人一樣精于改寫歷史。

　　詞語解釋

　　1.try to 設法

　　You need to try to find some common ground.

　　你需要設法找出你們之間的一些共同點。

　　Extreme political movements will try to exploit theunrest.

　　極端的政治運動將設法利用這種動蕩局勢。

　　2.clouds of 云

　　Sun rays filter through the clouds of an approaching storm, which produced lightning alongwith six inches of snow.

　　太陽光線透過風暴即將來臨時的云層，風暴產生了與6英寸厚的積雪和閃電。

　　Breathe life into dead space blow away all clouds of doubt.

　　讓性命吹進荒蕪空間，吹散所有疑惑的烏云。

　　3.be made of 用造成

　　The urn appeared to be made of some sort of bronze.

　　這甕看起來像是某種青銅制的。

　　Whatever criticisms may be made of the court s opinion, it is clear that vermont yankeerepresents the current law on the subject.

　　無論對法院的意見有什么樣的批評，弗蒙特揚基一案都代表了在此問題方面的現行法律。

　　4.expect to 期許

　　We might also expect to see more trade in services.

　　我們也許還可以期望看到服務貿易的增多。

　　Experts expect to throw away some early work.

　　專家們希望把自己的早期作品置之度外。

　　Dendrochronology

　　樹木年代學

　　Not always the ring of truth

　　年輪不一定反映事實

　　The use of wood to assess past environmentsneeds care

　　通過樹木判斷過去的環境時要小心了

　　TREE rings are Mother Nature s history books.

　　年輪是大自然的史書。

　　Researchers often look at chemicals stored in them when trying to reconstruct pastenvironments.

　　在試圖重現過去的環境時，研究人員經常會從年輪中所含的化學物質入手。

　　Like all history books, though, they can be unreliable.

　　然而就和所有的史書一樣，年輪也并不怎么靠譜。

　　And in the case of one particular chemical of interest, mercury, Jose Antonio RodriguezMartin of the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, in Madrid,and his colleagues have just shown how unreliable they are.

　　通過其關注的一個特別的化學物質-汞，西班牙國家農業與食物研究及技術學會的何塞安東尼奧羅德里格斯馬丁及其同事便剛剛證明了年輪多么不靠譜。

　　Dr Rodriguez Martin was studyingpines on La Palma, in the Canary Islands.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士一直在研究拉帕爾馬島上的松樹。

　　He knew that Hoyo Negro, one of the island s volcanoes, had erupted violently in 1949, andbelieved that the clouds of ash and explosive ejections of rock from the eruption haddestroyed all of the pines nearby.

　　他知道該島上的霍約內格羅火山曾于1949年發生過劇烈噴發，并認為噴發產生的火山灰及迸散的巖石摧毀了附近所有的松樹。

　　However, as he describes in Naturwissenschaften, when he and his team examined the area,they were stunned to discover a revenant from this cataclysm just 50 metres from the crater.

　　然而，正如他在《自然科學》雜志上所說，當他和自己的團隊對該區域進行調查時，在離火山口僅50米的地方發現了一棵劫后余生的松樹，讓他們震驚不已。

　　Like a battle-scarred soldier, this now-great pine had many half-healed wounds in its trunk.

　　就像一名身經百戰的士兵，這棵現已長成參天大樹的松樹的樹干上疤痕累累。

　　It had survived those. It did not, however, survive Dr Rodriguez Martin s axe.

　　這些傷口沒讓它倒下，但卻沒有逃過羅德里格斯馬丁博士的斧頭。

　　He reluctantly felled it and, for comparison, collected a tree of similar age that wasgrowing 400 metres from the eruption site, and another that was 16km away.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士忍痛將它放倒，并分別從離噴發點400米及16千米處砍倒兩棵與其樹齡相同的松樹進行比較。

　　One unpleasant element often ejected in volcanic eruptions is mercury.

　　火山噴發時經常會噴射出一種不怎么好的元素-汞。

　　That was certainly the case in 1949, as soil-sampling showed.

　　正如土壤采樣所示，1949年的火山噴發確實釋放出了汞元素。

　　The question was, how much of it had got into the trees

　　但問題是，有多少進入了樹體中?

　　Mercury falling

　　脫落的汞

　　When he analysed the survivor s scar tissue Dr Rodriguez Martin found high levels of themetal in it:

　　當羅德里格斯馬丁博士分析了這棵幸存的樹上的疤痕組織后，他發現其中的汞元素含量很高：

　　more than 22 micrograms per kilogram of wood.

　　每公斤木材中超過22毫克。

　　That was not surprising, given that this tissue would have formed soon after the eruption.

　　這并不出人意料，因為該組織是在火山噴發不久后形成的。

　　What was surprising was that the wood of the survivor tree s rings had only 2.3 microgramsof mercury per kilogram in it.

　　出人意料的是這棵幸存的樹中年輪的木質中每公斤僅含2.3毫克汞。

　　More surprising still, the rings of the other two trees were mercury-free, despite there beingmercury in nearby soil.

　　更讓人大跌眼鏡的是，其他兩棵書的年輪中汞含量為零，盡管其附近的土壤中含有汞。

　　Tree rings are made of tissue called xylem.

　　構成年輪的組織被稱為木質部。

　　This is a set of channels that carry water and minerals from the soil to the leaves, so itscomposition might be expected to reflect what is in the soil.

　　這是從土壤中將水合礦物質輸送至葉片的一組通道，所以其組分應該能夠反映出土壤中的組分。

　　A second set of channels, the phloem, found just under a tree s bark, carries the products ofphotosynthesis to the roots.

　　第二組通道叫韌皮部，就長在樹皮之下，它將光合作用的產物輸送到樹的根部。

　　This tissue, however, is not preserved from year to year.

　　然而該組織每年都會更新。

　　When Dr Rodriguez Martin sampled the phloem of the trees he had chopped down, he found itmuch richer in mercury than their xylem.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士對被他砍倒的樹的韌皮部采樣后，他發現韌皮部的汞含量比木質部的要高。

　　Phloem from the tree at the eruption site had 9.5 micrograms of the metal per kilogram.

　　位于噴發點的樹上的韌皮部中每千克含有9.5毫克汞。

　　The two more distant trees had 2.9 and 2.0 respectively.

　　另外兩棵較遠的樹的韌皮部每千克汞含量分別為2.9及2.0。

　　The explanation for the discrepancy lay in the trees bark.

　　產生這種差異的原因就藏在樹皮之中。

　　This had similar mercury levels to the phloem.

　　樹皮的汞含量與韌皮部相近。

　　What Dr Rodriguez Martin reckons is going on is that trees are using their bark, which theyshed continually, as a waste-disposal system.

　　羅德里格斯馬丁博士認為是這么回事：樹木將其不斷脫落樹皮當做一種廢物處理系統。

　　Mercury is carried there by the phloem and selectively deposited in it, rather than in theplants more permanent parts.

　　汞通過韌皮部被轉運到樹皮中，有選擇性地在其中沉積，而非在自己不易更新的部位沉積。

　　The metal is then got rid of when the bark is sloughed off.

　　然后當樹皮脫落時，其中的汞也隨之被除去。

　　That makes it invisible to researchers who come along later. What happens to mercury,moreover, might well happen to other toxic materials.

　　這使隨后而來的研究人員無法發現汞的存在。而且，在汞身上出現的情況很可能也會出現在其他有毒物質上。

　　That could throw the calculations of palaeoecologists severely out of kilter.

　　這會讓古生態學家的推測嚴重失準。

　　All of which is a caution to those who read the Book of Tree Rings for clues to what happenedin the past.

　　對于那些在年輪史書中尋找線索來了解過去發生了什么的人來說，所有這些都是一個警示。

　　Trees, it seems, are as good as rewriting history as people are.

　　樹木，似乎和人一樣精于改寫歷史。

　　詞語解釋

　　1.try to 設法

　　You need to try to find some common ground.

　　你需要設法找出你們之間的一些共同點。

　　Extreme political movements will try to exploit theunrest.

　　極端的政治運動將設法利用這種動蕩局勢。

　　2.clouds of 云

　　Sun rays filter through the clouds of an approaching storm, which produced lightning alongwith six inches of snow.

　　太陽光線透過風暴即將來臨時的云層，風暴產生了與6英寸厚的積雪和閃電。

　　Breathe life into dead space blow away all clouds of doubt.

　　讓性命吹進荒蕪空間，吹散所有疑惑的烏云。

　　3.be made of 用造成

　　The urn appeared to be made of some sort of bronze.

　　這甕看起來像是某種青銅制的。

　　Whatever criticisms may be made of the court s opinion, it is clear that vermont yankeerepresents the current law on the subject.

　　無論對法院的意見有什么樣的批評，弗蒙特揚基一案都代表了在此問題方面的現行法律。

　　4.expect to 期許

　　We might also expect to see more trade in services.

　　我們也許還可以期望看到服務貿易的增多。

　　Experts expect to throw away some early work.

　　專家們希望把自己的早期作品置之度外。