Greg Asner: Ecology from the air

翻译人员: Li Li 校对人员: Zhiting Chen

Technology can change our understanding of nature.

科技可以改变我们对自然界的认识

Take for example the case of lions.

举个狮子的例子吧

几个世纪以来，人们都说

For centuries, it's been said that female lions

雌狮子在热带草原上捕猎食物

do all of the hunting out in the open savanna,

and male lions do nothing until it's time for dinner.

而雄狮子除了吃什么都不干

You've heard this too, I can tell.

我相信你一定也听说过这个

最近我带了一个在南非克鲁格国家公园的

Well recently, I led an airborne mapping campaign

in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

机载测绘活动

Our colleagues put GPS tracking collars

同事们用GPS项圈

on male and female lions,

跟踪公狮子和母狮子

and we mapped their hunting behavior

这样我们就可以从空中

from the air.

测绘它们的捕猎活动

The lower left shows a lion sizing up

左下是一只狮子

a herd of impala for a kill,

在对一群黑斑羚虎视眈眈

and the right shows what I call

右边是我所称之为

the lion viewshed.

狮子视域范围

That's how far the lion can see in all directions

在各个方向的可视距离

until his or her view is obstructed by vegetation.

直到他或她的视觉受到植被的阻挡

我们发现

And what we found

is that male lions are not the lazy hunters

雄狮子其实并不是

我们以为的懒猎手

we thought them to be.

They just use a different strategy.

只是它们的策略不同罢了

Whereas the female lions hunt

雌狮子常常会在广阔的热带大草原上

out in the open savanna

远距离凶猛出击

over long distances, usually during the day,

通常是在白天

male lions use an ambush strategy

而雄狮子常常喜欢夜晚

在密林里伏击

in dense vegetation, and often at night.

这个视频的左边和右边

This video shows the actual hunting viewsheds

分别展示的是

of male lions on the left

雄狮子和雌狮子狩猎时候的可视域

and females on the right.

Red and darker colors show more dense vegetation,

红色和更深一点的颜色表示的是比较茂密的丛林

and the white are wide open spaces.

白色则是视野比较广阔的空间

And this is the viewshed right literally at the eye level

这完全是捕猎中的雄狮子和雌狮子

of hunting male and female lions.

与视线齐平的可视域

对于雄狮子捕猎时候

All of a sudden, you get a very clear understanding

of the very spooky conditions under which

那令人毛骨损然的场景

male lions do their hunting.

我想你应该会一下子有了一个清晰的认识

I bring up this example to begin,

我在一开始就拿出这个例子

because it emphasizes how little we know about nature.

是想强调我们对于自然其实知之甚少

截至目前我们已经做了大量的努力

There's been a huge amount of work done so far

试图减缓热带雨林的消失

to try to slow down our losses of tropical forests,

and we are losing our forests at a rapid rate,

而正如幻灯片上红色所标识的

as shown in red on the slide.

我们的森林正在迅速失去

I find it ironic that we're doing so much,

我觉得很讽刺的是我们做了很多

yet these areas are fairly unknown to science.

但对这些区域科学界却是完全未知的

So how can we save what we don't understand?

而我们又如何能够挽救自己完全未知的东西呢？

现在我是一名地球生态学者也是一名地球探索者

Now I'm a global ecologist and an Earth explorer

with a background in physics and chemistry

我有着物理、化学、生物

and biology and a lot of other boring subjects,

以及许多其它枯燥学科的背景

but above all, I'm obsessed with what we don't know

而最重要的是，我对这个星球上的未知事物

about our planet.

非常之着迷

So I created this,

所以我创建了这个

the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, or CAO.

卡内基机载天文台（Carnegie Airborne Observatory），或者可以简称为CAO

它看起来只像是一架漆得很花哨的飞机

It may look like a plane with a fancy paint job,

but I packed it with over 1,000 kilos

但其实装载着1,000公斤的

of high-tech sensors, computers,

高科技传感器、计算机

and a very motivated staff

以及一支由许多地球科学家和飞行员

of Earth scientists and pilots.

组成的充满活力的队伍

Two of our instruments are very unique:

我们有两台很稀罕的设备

one is called an imaging spectrometer

一台被叫作成像光谱仪

that can actually measure the chemical composition

当我们在高空飞行时，它可以测量那些

of plants as we fly over them.

从我们身下掠过的植物的化学成分

Another one is a set of lasers,

另一个是一套

very high-powered lasers,

绝对高性能的激光器

that fire out of the bottom of the plane,

从飞机底部放射激光

sweeping across the ecosystem

迅速扫过整个生态系统

and measuring it at nearly 500,000 times per second

并以接近每秒500,000次采样的速度

进行高精度的3D测量

in high-resolution 3D.

这是旧金山金门大桥的图片

Here's an image of the Golden Gate Bridge

in San Francisco, not far from where I live.

离我住的地方不远

Although we flew straight over this bridge,

虽然我们从桥上直接飞过

we imaged it in 3D, captured its color

我们对它做了3D影像

in just a few seconds.

在几秒钟的时间就捕捉到了它的颜色

But the real power of the CAO

但实际上CAO真正的实力

is its ability to capture the actual building blocks

在于它捕捉生态系统

of ecosystems.

实际构造的能力

This is a small town in the Amazon,

这是CAO为亚马逊一个小镇

imaged with the CAO.

做的影像

We can slice through our data

通过我们的数据切片我们可以看到

and see, for example, the 3D structure

比如像是

of the vegetation and the buildings,

植被和建筑物的3D结构

甚至我们可以用一些化学信息

or we can use the chemical information

在我们飞过那些植物的时候

to actually figure out how fast the plants are growing

计算出它们的生长速度

as we fly over them.

这些最热烈的粉色也就是生长最快的那些植物

The hottest pinks are the fastest-growing plants.

我们可以用超出你想象的方式

And we can see biodiversity in ways

that you never could have imagined.

看到生物的多样性

This is what a rainforest might look like

这是你乘着热气球飞过热带雨林时候

as you fly over it in a hot air balloon.

看到的它的样子

This is how we see a rainforest,

它用斑斓的色彩

in kaleidoscopic color that tells us

告诉我们

that there are many species living with one another.

有许许多多的生物生活在一起

But you have to remember that these trees

但你必须认识到

are literally bigger than whales,

这些树的确是比鲸鱼还要巨大的

这就意味着仅仅是从它们下面走过

and what that means is that they're impossible to understand

是无法认识它们的

just by walking on the ground below them.

我们所呈现的图像是3D的,带有化学和生物学的信息,

So our imagery is 3D, it's chemical, it's biological,

and this tells us not only the species

告诉我们在这苍穹下生活的

that are living in the canopy,

不仅仅只有我们人类

but it tells us a lot of information

它为我们提供了很多新的信息

about the rest of the species that occupy the rainforest.

有关在这热带雨林中生活着的其它生物

Now I created the CAO

现在我创建了CAO

in order to answer questions that have proven

就是为了回答那些被证明是

extremely challenging to answer from any other vantage point,

要从诸如地面、卫星传感器的任何其它位置来回答

such as from the ground, or from satellite sensors.

都极具挑战的问题

今天我想和大家分享其中的三个

I want to share three of those questions with you today.

The first questions is,

第一个问题是

如何管理我们在热带雨林中的

how do we manage our carbon reserves

in tropical forests?

碳储量？

Tropical forests contain a huge amount of carbon in the trees,

热带雨林中的数目储存了大量的碳资源

and we need to keep that carbon in those forests

如果我们想要避免全球继续变暖

if we're going to avoid any further global warming.

就必须让这些碳存在树木中

而不幸的是：全球由于滥伐森林所导致的

Unfortunately, global carbon emissions

from deforestation

碳排放量

now equals the global transportation sector.

目前已经赶得上全球运输行业

That's all ships, airplanes, trains and automobiles combined.

这可是所有船只、飞机、或者和汽车排放量的总和

So it's understandable that policy negotiators

所以可以理解那些政策谈判代表

have been working hard to reduce deforestation,

一直致力于减少森林砍伐量

but they're doing it on landscapes

目前正在那些科学几乎未知的地域上

that are hardly known to science.

下功夫

If you don't know where the carbon is exactly,

如果你不能确切并详细的知道碳存在哪里

in detail, how can you know what you're losing?

又怎么能知道你的损失？

Basically, we need a high-tech accounting system.

最基本的，我们需要一个先进的会计系统

通过它我们可以非常细节的看到

With our system, we're able to see the carbon stocks

of tropical forests in utter detail.

热带雨林的碳存储量

The red shows, obviously, closed-canopy tropical forest,

红色显示，明显的，成片的热带雨林

and then you see the cookie cutting,

然后你看到整齐的切口

or the cutting of the forest in yellows and greens.

黄色和绿色的森林切口

就像在切蛋糕

It's like cutting a cake except this cake

只不过这些蛋糕有鲸鱼那么深

is about whale deep.

不过我们可以放大

And yet, we can zoom in and see the forest

同时看到森林和树木

and the trees at the same time.

让我们非常惊奇的是

And what's amazing is, even though we flew

very high above this forest,

即便我们在森林上面飞得很高

later on in analysis, we can go in

但在后续分析中

and actually experience the treetrops,

我们可以走进森林，体验那些树梢

leaf by leaf, branch by branch,

每一片叶子、每一根树枝

就像这个森林里的其它生物一样

just as the other species that live in this forest

体验这些与之共存的树木

experience it along with the trees themselves.

我们已经用这些技术进行过探索

We've been using the technology to explore

and to actually put out the first carbon geographies

用非常高的精度

in high resolution

实际刻画了第一片偏远地区的碳地貌

in faraway places like the Amazon Basin

像亚马逊盆地

and not-so-faraway places like the United States

还有一些不是很偏远的地方，比如像

and Central America.

美国和中美洲

下面我将带大家领略一下

What I'm going to do is I'm going to take you on a high-resolution, first-time tour

我们的首次秘鲁之行以及后来巴拿马的高精度碳地貌

of the carbon landscapes of Peru and then Panama.

The colors are going to be going from red to blue.

颜色从红色到蓝色

Red is extremely high carbon stocks,

红色标识着极高的碳存储量

your largest cathedral forests you can imagine,

你所能想象到的最大的森林

蓝色则是非常低的碳存储量

and blue are very low carbon stocks.

And let me tell you, Peru alone is an amazing place,

我想告诉大家的是

秘鲁真的是一个神奇的地方

totally unknown in terms of its carbon geography

它的碳地貌直到今天才被发现

until today.

我们飞到秘鲁北面的地区

We can fly to this area in northern Peru

and see super high carbon stocks in red,

看到了红色的那些超高碳存储量的地方

and the Amazon River and floodplain

而亚马逊河和河漫滩

cutting right through it.

正好从它中间穿过

We can go to an area of utter devastation

caused by deforestation in blue,

我们可以去那片蓝色的

因为过度砍伐而被彻底被毁坏的地区

and the virus of deforestation spreading out in orange.

而砍伐的诟病也正在向橘色的区域蔓延

我们也可以飞过南安第斯山脉

We can also fly to the southern Andes

to see the tree line and see exactly how

上升到山系

the carbon geography ends

去看林木线以及

as we go up into the mountain system.

碳地貌是如何终止的

我们可以去亚马逊西部最大的湿地

And we can go to the biggest swamp in the western Amazon.

It's a watery dreamworld

这是一个奇妙的水世界

akin to Jim Cameron's "Avatar."

就像吉姆-卡梅伦的“阿凡达”

We can go to one of the smallest tropical countries,

我们可以去最小的热带国家巴拿马

Panama, and see also a huge range

看看那片巨大的

of carbon variation,

由红到蓝

from high in red to low in blue.

的碳变化范围

Unfortunately, most of the carbon is lost in the lowlands,

不幸的是绝大多数碳都在地底处丢失了

但是你可以看到余下的,

but what you see that's left,

in terms of high carbon stocks in greens and reds,

绿色和红色代表高碳储蓄,

is the stuff that's up in the mountains.

是在山脉中

One interesting exception to this

你可以看到屏幕正中间

is right in the middle of your screen.

有一个有趣的例外

你可以看到巴拿马运河周围的缓冲带

You're seeing the buffer zone around the Panama Canal.

是红色和黄色的

That's in the reds and yellows.

运河当局动用力量

The canal authorities are using force

to protect their watershed and global commerce.

保护他们的水域以及全球贸易

This kind of carbon mapping

这种碳测绘图

has transformed conservation

改变了

and resource policy development.

养护和资源政策的发展

It's really advancing our ability to save forests

它完全超出了我们

and to curb climate change.

保护森林、抑制气候变化的能力

My second question: How do we prepare for climate change

我的第二个问题是

我们如何在一个类似亚马逊热带雨林的地方为应对气候变化做准备？

in a place like the Amazon rainforest?

Let me tell you, I spend a lot of time

我想告诉大家的是我花了很多时间在这些地方

in these places, and we're seeing the climate changing already.

并且我们看到气候已经正在发生变化

Temperatures are increasing,

温度在升高

and what's really happening is we're getting a lot of droughts,

我们看到干旱

正在反复发生

recurring droughts.

这里用红色显示了2010的大旱灾区域

The 2010 mega-drought is shown here

with red showing an area about the size of Western Europe.

面积抵得上整个西欧

The Amazon was so dry in 2010

2010年亚马逊非常干旱

that even the main stem of the Amazon river itself

就连它的干流

也部分干涸了

dried up partially, as you see in the photo

在幻灯片的下半部分你可以看到照片

in the lower portion of the slide.

我们发现在非常偏远的地区

What we found is that in very remote areas,

these droughts are having a big negative impact

旱灾对热带雨林

造成了巨大的负面影响

on tropical forests.

比如，那些红色的树木就是

For example, these are all of the dead trees in red

that suffered mortality following the 2010 drought.

继2010的大旱之后死亡的

This area happens to be on the border

这些区域是在

of Peru and Brazil,

秘鲁和巴西的边界

totally unexplored,

完全没有开发过

almost totally unknown scientifically.

科学上也几乎完全未知

So what we think, as Earth scientists,

作为地球学者，我们认为

is species are going to have to migrate

生物一定会随着气候变化而迁徙

with climate change from the east in Brazil

从巴西东部一直向西

all the way west into the Andes

and up into the mountains

到安第斯山脉

in order to minimize their exposure to climate change.

一直沿着山向上

这样才能减小他们所受的气候变化的影响

One of the problems with this is that humans

are taking apart the western Amazon as we speak.

而其中的问题是人们

对亚马逊西部地区的粗暴行为

Look at this 100-square-kilometer gash

看看这个由黄金矿工们弄出的

in the forest created by gold miners.

100平方千米的森林裂缝吧

You see the forest in green in 3D,

你看这片3D的绿色森林

and you see the effects of gold mining

以及黄金旷工在地面下

down below the soil surface.

造成的破坏

Species have nowhere to migrate in a system like this, obviously.

显然，任何生物都不会迁徙到这样的生态系统中去

如果你还没有去过亚马逊，你真的该去看看

If you haven't been to the Amazon, you should go.

不管你去哪儿

It's an amazing experience every time,

no matter where you go.

每次都会有奇妙的经历

你可能会在河面上看它

You're going to probably see it this way, on a river.

但事实上很多时候

But what happens is a lot of times

the rivers hide what's really going on

河流会把事实

隐藏在森林里面

back in the forest itself.

我们飞过同一条河流

We flew over this same river,

imaged the system in 3D.

对这个生态系统进行3D成像

The forest is on the left.

森林起初在左边

我们慢慢移动森林

And then we can digitally remove the forest

and see what's going on below the canopy.

观测天空下正在发生什么

And in this case, we found gold mining activity,

我们看到了

有人在从事非法的挖金矿活动

all of it illegal,

set back away from the river's edge,

就在河边上

as you'll see in those strange pockmarks

因为从右边的图中

coming up on your screen on the right.

你能看到那些奇怪的凹坑

Don't worry, we're working with the authorities

不同担心，我们会和当局一同合作

to deal with this and many, many other problems

处理这个区域的

in the region.

这个问题还有其他的一些问题

So in order to put together a conservation plan

为了组成一个保护计划

for these unique, important corridors

针对这些重要的奇特的地方

like the western Amazon and the Andes Amazon corridor,

比如像西亚马逊、安第斯山亚马逊走廊

we have to start making

我们必须现在就开始

geographically explicit plans now.

制定地理上的详细计划

而如果我们对这个区域的生物多样性地理图完全未知

How do we do that if we don't know the geography of biodiversity in the region,

if it's so unknown to science?

我们怎么可能完成？

So what we've been doing is using

所以我们一直在致力于

the laser-guided spectroscopy from the CAO

通过CAO的激光制导光谱仪

完成对亚马逊热带雨林生物多样性的

to map for the first time the biodiversity

首次成像

of the Amazon rainforest.

Here you see actual data showing different species in different colors.

你现在看到的是用不同颜色表示不同物种的实际数据

红色是一种物种，蓝色也是一种

Reds are one type of species, blues are another,

and greens are yet another.

绿色是另一种

And when we take this together and scale up

当我们把这些放在一起

to the regional level,

扩展到区域级

we get a completely new geography

就得到一个在这之前从未有过的

生物多样性地理图

of biodiversity unknown prior to this work.

它告诉我们从一个栖息地到另一个栖息地之间

This tells us where the big biodiversity changes

生物多样性的巨大变化发生在哪里

occur from habitat to habitat,

这个非常重要

and that's really important because it tells us

因为它可以告诉我们当气候突变的时候

a lot about where species may migrate to

生物迁徙的出发地和目的地

and migrate from as the climate shifts.

这是在区域开发计划中

And this is the pivotal information that's needed

by decision makers to develop protected areas

决策者发展保护区时

所需的关键信息

in the context of their regional development plans.

And third and final question is,

第三个问题也是最后一个

how do we manage biodiversity on a planet

在被保护的生态系统中

of protected ecosystems?

我们如何管理生物多样性？

The example I started out with about lions hunting,

一开始我提到的那个狮子捕猎的例子

that was a study we did

就是我们在南非

behind the fence line of a protected area

一块保护区域的围栏后

in South Africa.

所做的研究工作

And the truth is, much of Africa's nature

事实上，南非的大自然很大程度上

is going to persist into the future

将在未来成为保护地

in protected areas like I show in blue on the screen.

就像我在屏幕上用蓝色标识的那样

This puts incredible pressure and responsibility

这将对公园的管理造成

on park management.

难以置信的压力和责任

They need to do and make decisions

他们所做的决策必须保证

that will benefit all of the species that they're protecting.

对保护区内所有物种的保护

他们的一些决策的确会造成很大的影响

Some of their decisions have really big impacts.

For example, how much and where

比如，用多大力度以及在哪里使用火力

to use fire as a management tool?

作为他们的管理工具？

Or, how to deal with a large species like elephants,

比如，如何管理大象之类的大型物种

which may, if their populations get too large,

如果它们的数目过于庞大

have a negative impact on the ecosystem

将会对生态系统和其它物种

and on other species.

造成负面的影响

And let me tell you, these types of dynamics

我这么跟你说吧，这些不同的情况

really play out on the landscape.

在这片土地上真的发生过

In the foreground is an area with lots of fire

这是一片有着大量火力

and lots of elephants:

同时也有很多大象的地方

wide open savanna in blue, and just a few trees.

蓝色是一望无际的热带草原，树木很少

As we cross this fence line, now we're getting

越过围栏，我们进入一片

into an area that has had protection from fire

有着火力保护

and zero elephants:

但没有大象的区域

dense vegetation, a radically different ecosystem.

这里植被茂盛，是一个完全不同的生态系统

在克鲁格之类的地方

And in a place like Kruger,

大象密度的攀升

the soaring elephant densities

are a real problem.

的确是个问题

I know it's a sensitive issue for many of you,

这对你们当中的很多人是很敏感的话题

的确很难作答

and there are no easy answers with this.

值得欣慰的是我们开发的那些用在南非的技术

But what's good is that the technology we've developed

and we're working with in South Africa, for example,

比如

is allowing us to map every single tree in the savanna,

可以使得我们对热带草原上的每一棵树进行成像

and then through repeat flights

通过反反复复的飞行

we're able to see which trees

我们能够

are being pushed over by elephants,

通过屏幕上的红色标识

看到那些被大象推倒了的树

in the red as you see on the screen, and how much that's happening

以及这些在草原上的不同风景区发生到什么程度

in different types of landscapes in the savanna.

这给公园管理员提供了

That's giving park managers

a very first opportunity to use

第一个制定精细化管理策略的机会

tactical management strategies that are more nuanced

避免了极端事件的发生

and don't lead to those extremes that I just showed you.

就像我刚才展示的那些一样

So really, the way we're looking

at protected areas nowadays

is to think of it as tending to a circle of life,

事实上，我们今天看待

保护区域的方式

where we have fire management,

是把它看作是一个生生不息的生命循环

elephant management, those impacts on the structure of the ecosystem,

对火力进行管理、对大象进行管理

影响整个生态系统的结构

and then those impacts

进而影响到每一个物种

affecting everything from insects

从小小的昆虫

up to apex predators like lions.

一直到食物链顶端的狮子

Going forward, I plan to greatly expand

后续我在计划大力推广

the airborne observatory.

这种空中天文台

I'm hoping to actually put the technology into orbit

我希望能把这项技术用到航天轨道中去

so we can manage the entire planet

这样我们就可以

with technologies like this.

管理好整个地球

Until then, you're going to find me flying

到那时你会发现我将在

in some remote place that you've never heard of.

很多你不曾听过的偏远地区飞行

I just want to end by saying that technology is

最后，我想说的是

这项技术对管理我们的地球来说非常之关键

absolutely critical to managing our planet,

但更为重要的是

but even more important is the understanding

and wisdom to apply it.

首先我们必须必须要有应用它的理解力和智慧

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

(掌声)