科学美国人60秒（翻译）打地鼠和火山 2017.05.10

Gophers Versus the Volcano

打地鼠和火山

May 18th is the 37th anniversary of the massive explosion of Mt. St. Helens. But within days of the volcano erupting, the local ecosystem started to bounce back. Thanks to some unassuming little animals that spend lots of time underground.“The pocket gophers were the ecological heroes of Mt. St. Helens.”Emory University paleontologist and geologist Anthony J. Martin.

5月18日是对圣海伦斯火山大爆炸的第三十七周年。但在火山爆发的几天里，当地的生态系统开始反弹。由于一些不起眼的小动物花了很多时间在地下打洞。“口袋地鼠是圣海伦斯火山的生态英雄。”美国埃默里大学的古生物学家和地质学家Anthony J. Martin说。

“You normally don’t hear those words put together, pocket gopher and hero. But they were…these small burrowing mammals were able to survive this massive, devastating volcanic eruption.”Just as numerous animals that live underground have survived catastrophes and predators for hundreds of millions of years. As Martin discusses in his new book The Evolution Underground: Burrows, Bunkers, and the Marvelous Subterranean World Beneath Our Feet.

“通常你不会把这些词放在一起，口袋鼠和英雄。但是他们……这些小穴居哺乳动物能够在这场大规模毁灭性的火山爆发中幸存下来，就像无数的地下动物在亿万年前就已经在灾难和掠食者中幸存下来了一样。正如马丁在他的新书《地下进化：洞穴、地堡和脚下的奇妙地下世界》中所讨论的那样。

“The reports I was reading about this, about how these researchers in helicopters are flying over the devastated landscape—just a few days later there were the burrow mounds. Pop pop pop. Thinking about these gophers that were below the ground. And they survived that...

“我读到很多关于这些研究的报道，直升机研究人员是如何在毁坏风景中飞行的，几天后就有了地洞。想想这些地鼠在地下干了什么，并且他们幸存下来了…

“So that to me was a golden opportunity to talk about that, as this incredible story of survival, but also renewal. That these little burrowing mammals brought back that landscape. Because their burrows served first of all as refuge for any other small animals that were there. So other small mammals and other vertebrates, such as amphibians and reptiles that lived there, they were either in their own burrows or they were in pocket gopher burrows or other small mammal burrows in the area.

“因此，对我来说，这不但是一个千载难逢的机会，来谈论这个令人难以置信的生存故事，还是一个更新的故事。这些小穴居哺乳动物使景观依然完好。因为他们的洞穴首先是那里的其他小动物的避难所。所以其他小型哺乳动物和其他脊椎动物，像住在那里的爬行类两栖动物，他们要么是在自己的洞穴里，要么在该地区的口袋地鼠的洞穴里，要么在其他小型哺乳动物的洞穴里。

“The burrowing also brought up seeds. The seeds are already buried, so that caused plants to start sprouting in the area, where it wasn’t so much wind-blown seeds…then of course once other animals started coming back into the area, like elk, and they started dropping seeds through their feces and otherwise affecting the surface ecology, that then worked together to bring those ecosystems back to life. But the gophers were key in this. They really were essential for these ecosystems to be able to bounce back.”

“挖洞也带来了种子。种子已经埋在地里，从而使植物开始在该地区生根发芽，这里不会有那么多的风吹种子…当然，一旦其他动物回到该地区，像麋鹿，他们开始通过粪便将种子播种到地里，否则会影响到地表生态，然后一起将这些生态系统带回到生活地中。但地鼠在这里是关键角色，他们对这些生态系统的恢复真的是必不可少的。”

You can hear an extended interview with Martin about his book in a Science Talk podcast posted on our website. And there’s a children’s book just about the gophers and Mt. St. Helens called Gopher to the Rescue by Terry Jennings. Finally, for general information about gophers and their effect on landscapes, check out the nature documentary Caddyshack.

你可以看一个关于Martin的采访，该采访在网站科学讨论会中。还有一本关于地鼠和圣海伦斯火山的儿童书，叫做地鼠救援。最后，关于地鼠及其对景观的影响的一般信息，可以去自然纪录片球童小屋里找寻线索。

—Steve Mirsky

—来自Steve Mirsky的报道。