澳大利亞的森林大火摧毀了該國(guó)五分之一的森林

澳大利亞的森林大火摧毀了該國(guó)五分之一的森林

The unprecedented blazes that swept through Australia during the nation’s summer months were so aggressive they destroyed about a fifth of the nation’s forests. The fires have been linked to climate change, as long-term droughts caused by global warming created the perfect environment for flames to burn.

今年夏天，澳大利亞發(fā)生了史無前例的大火，燒毀了全國(guó)五分之一的森林?；馂?zāi)與氣候變化有關(guān)，因?yàn)槿蜃兣瘜?dǎo)致的長(zhǎng)期干旱為火焰的燃燒創(chuàng)造了完美的環(huán)境。

In recent months, scientists have been trying to gauge the exact extent of the wildfires and identify why they were so extreme. Some of their findings have now been reported in a special edition of Nature Climate Change.

近幾個(gè)月來，科學(xué)家們一直在試圖測(cè)量野火的確切范圍，并找出它們?nèi)绱藰O端的原因。他們的一些發(fā)現(xiàn)已經(jīng)發(fā)表在《自然氣候變化》的特別版上。

Rachel Baxter

One study found that 5.8 million hectares (14.3 million acres) of broadleaf forest were decimated between September 2019 and January 2020 in the hardest-hit states of Victoria and New South Wales, accounting for 21 percent of Australia’s entire forested area. Most of the time, the amount of Australian forest lost to annual wildfires is just 2 percent of the total. The researchers believe they have underestimated the 2019/2020 fire season figure, as they did not include Tasmania in their data.

一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，2019年9月至2020年1月期間，受災(zāi)最嚴(yán)重的維多利亞州和新南威爾士州的580萬公頃(1430萬英畝)闊葉林遭到破壞，占澳大利亞全部森林面積的21%。大多數(shù)情況下，每年澳大利亞森林火災(zāi)造成的損失僅占森林總量的2%。研究人員認(rèn)為，他們低估了2019/2020年火災(zāi)季節(jié)的數(shù)據(jù)，因?yàn)樗麄兊臄?shù)據(jù)中沒有包括塔斯馬尼亞島。

"Halfway through Spring 2019 we realised that a very large part of the eastern Australian forest could be burned in this single season," Matthias Boer, from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University, Penrith, told AFP.

西悉尼大學(xué)霍克斯伯里環(huán)境研究所的Matthias Boer告訴法新社:“在2019年春季的中途，我們意識(shí)到東澳大利亞的大部分森林可能在這個(gè)單一的季節(jié)被燒毀。”

"The shock came from realising that this season was off the charts globally in terms of the percentage of the continental section of a forest biome that burned."

“令人震驚的是，人們意識(shí)到，就一個(gè)森林生態(tài)群落的大陸部分被燒毀的比例而言，這個(gè)季節(jié)超出了全球的記錄。”

The Australian bush is home to many iconic animals found nowhere else on Earth, like koalas and wallabies, and it’s estimated that over a billion animals died in the recent fires. Some of the worst-affected species that you might not have heard of include the glossy black cockatoo, the Hastings River mouse, and the Kangaroo Island dunnart, a little marsupial found solely on the island with which it shares its name. Losing a fifth of Australia’s forest habitat certainly spells bad news for the wildlife that resides there.

澳大利亞叢林是許多地球上其他地方找不到的標(biāo)志性動(dòng)物的家園，比如考拉和小袋鼠。據(jù)估計(jì)，超過10億動(dòng)物死于最近的火災(zāi)。一些受影響最嚴(yán)重的物種，你可能沒有聽說過，包括有光澤的黑色鸚鵡，黑斯廷斯河鼠，和袋鼠島dunnart，一種只在島上發(fā)現(xiàn)的有袋類小動(dòng)物，它的名字與此島同名。失去澳大利亞五分之一的森林棲息地對(duì)生活在那里的野生動(dòng)物來說無疑是個(gè)壞消息。

So why has this bushfire season been so terrible? For the past few years, the Murray-Darling Basin, a vast area in southeastern Australia home to 2 million people that holds a large system of rivers, and is crucial to much of Australia’s agriculture, has been unusually dry, experiencing the longest period of below-average rainfall since 1900.

那么為什么這個(gè)山火季節(jié)如此可怕呢?墨累-達(dá)令盆地位于澳大利亞東南部，面積廣闊，擁有200萬人口，擁有龐大的河流系統(tǒng)，對(duì)澳大利亞的農(nóng)業(yè)至關(guān)重要。過去幾年，該盆地異常干旱，經(jīng)歷了自1900年以來持續(xù)時(shí)間最長(zhǎng)的低于平均水平的降雨。

The lack of rain is linked to Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events, which can bring rain to the region. Negative IOD events, which occur when the waters of the eastern Indian Ocean are warmer than in the west, can up rainfall. But as ocean temperatures rise with global warming, the number of these events has declined, starving southeastern Australia of rain.

缺雨與印度洋偶極子(IOD)事件有關(guān)，IOD事件會(huì)給該地區(qū)帶來降雨。當(dāng)東印度洋的海水溫度高于西印度洋時(shí)，就會(huì)發(fā)生負(fù)碘事件，從而增加降雨。但隨著海洋溫度隨著全球變暖而上升，這些事件的數(shù)量已經(jīng)減少，導(dǎo)致澳大利亞東南部少雨。

"With climate change, there have been projections that there will be more positive IOD events and fewer negative IOD events," Andrew King of the University of Melbourne, lead author of a Nature Climate Change paper, told AFP.

《自然氣候變化》雜志上一篇論文的第一作者、墨爾本大學(xué)的安德魯·金對(duì)法新社說:“隨著氣候變化，已經(jīng)有預(yù)測(cè)說，將會(huì)有更多的積極IOD事件和更少的消極IOD事件。”

"This would mean that we'd expect more dry seasons in Australia and possibly worse droughts."

“這意味著，我們預(yù)計(jì)澳大利亞將出現(xiàn)更多的旱季，可能還會(huì)出現(xiàn)更嚴(yán)重的干旱。”

And more droughts mean more fires. A dry, arid environment provides lots of fuel for fires in the form of dry vegetation. And once the flames have been extinguished, a drought makes it harder for plant life to recover.

更多的干旱意味著更多的火災(zāi)。干燥、干旱的環(huán)境以干燥植被的形式為火災(zāi)提供了大量的燃料。一旦火焰被撲滅，干旱會(huì)使植物更難恢復(fù)。

With intense bushfire seasons set to become more normal as the world warms, Australia’s government must swiftly take action against climate change to protect the country in the years to come.

隨著全球變暖，強(qiáng)烈的森林火災(zāi)季節(jié)將變得更加正常，澳大利亞政府必須迅速采取行動(dòng)應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化，在未來幾年保護(hù)國(guó)家。