科学家冒着生命危险，收集应对气候变化的种子

科学家冒着生命危险，收集应对气候变化的种子

Braving perils from blood-sucking leeches to tigers and using transport as basic as elephants, scientists have journeyed like “Indiana Jones” to remote locations to collect wild cousins of crop seeds in a project to help tackle climate change.

从吸血的水蛭到老虎，再到像大象一样基本的交通工具，科学家们冒着危险，像《夺宝奇兵》(Indiana Jones)一样长途跋涉到偏远地区，收集农作物种子的野生近亲，以帮助应对气候变化。

A report released on Tuesday presented the results of a six-year quest to collect thousands of wild seeds that could play an important role in feeding a rising global population at a time when global warming is jeopardizing crop production.

周二发布的一份报告展示了一项历时6年的研究的结果，这项研究收集了数千颗野生种子，这些种子在全球变暖危及农作物生产之际，对养活不断增长的全球人口可能起到重要作用。

Traveling by foot, four-wheel drive, canoe, horse and even elephant to reach remote corners of the world, more than 100 scientists secured 4,644 seed samples of 371 wild relatives – many endangered – of 28 globally important crops.

100多名科学家通过徒步、四轮驱动、独木舟、马匹甚至大象等方式前往世界的偏远角落，从全球28种重要农作物的371种野生亲缘(其中许多濒临灭绝)中获取了4644份种子样本。

“The expeditions were not a walk in the park. They were perilous at times and physically demanding, with heat, dust, sweat and danger from wild animals – from blood-sucking leeches to tigers,” said Hannes Dempewolf, senior scientist and the head of global initiatives at the Crop Trust.

“探险不是在公园里散步。他们有时很危险，体力上也很吃力，有热、灰尘、汗水，还有来自野生动物——从吸血的水蛭到老虎——的危险。”农作物信托基金的高级科学家和全球项目负责人汉内斯·德姆佩沃尔夫(Hannes Dempewolf)说。

“The stories these seed collectors brought back from the field often resemble scenes from an Indiana Jones movie.”

“这些种子收集者从地里带回的故事，常常类似于印第安纳琼斯(Indiana Jones)电影里的场景。”

The project, managed by the Crop Trust in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) and with Norwegian funding, is the most ambitious coordinated global effort yet to collect and conserve crops’ wild relatives.

该项目由作物信托基金与皇家植物园和英国皇家植物园的千年种子银行(MSB)合作管理，并得到挪威的资助，是迄今为止收集和保护农作物野生亲缘关系的最雄心勃勃的全球协调努力。

Scientists that took part in the seed quest came from 25 countries in four continents.

参与种子探索的科学家来自四大洲的25个国家。

The sturdier cousins of widely grown crops have evolved to survive harsh conditions such as low rainfall, flooding, temperature extremes and poor soils and offer a largely untapped source of diversity for climate-proofing crops.

这些广泛种植的作物的近亲已经进化到可以在恶劣的条件下生存，比如少雨、洪水、极端的温度和贫瘠的土壤，并为气候防护作物提供了一个很大程度上尚未开发的多样性资源。

Crops have been threatened by extinction due to rampant deforestation, climate change, urban sprawl and conflict and losing this diversity could endanger global food security.

由于滥伐森林、气候变化、城市扩张和冲突，农作物受到灭绝的威胁，而失去这种多样性可能危及全球粮食安全。

“Bananas are a great example of a crop that is potentially threatened because of increasing incidents of disease and we’ve been through this before,” said project manager Chris Cockel.

项目经理Chris Cockel说:“香蕉是一个很好的例子，它是一种作物，由于疾病事件的增加而受到潜在威胁，我们以前就经历过这种情况。”

“In the post-war period the banana (that) people were familiar with was virtually wiped out by a disease that is now making inroads again. So it’s important to use the seed material…to breed back in the lost genetic traits that will help to make bananas more resistant to that particular disease.”

“在战后时期，人们所熟悉的香蕉实际上被一种疾病消灭了，而这种疾病现在又卷土重来。因此，利用种子材料进行繁殖是很重要的，这将有助于香蕉恢复失去的基因特性，使香蕉对这种疾病更有抵抗力。”

Food supplies are under severe threat, according to a United Nations report, given the number of animal and plant species fast disappearing as the world grapples with how to feed a soaring population.

根据联合国的一份报告，由于世界正在努力解决如何养活不断增长的人口，动植物物种的数量正在迅速消失，粮食供应正面临严重威胁。

At the same time people are relying on fewer species for food, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, leaving production susceptible to shocks like pests or disease, droughts and other extreme weather linked to climate change.

与此同时，根据联合国粮农组织(U.N. food and Agriculture Organization)的数据，人们对粮食的依赖正在减少，这使得粮食生产容易受到虫害、干旱和其他与气候变化有关的极端天气的冲击。