無聲的自然界

by John Vidal Joyce 譯

無聲的自然界

by John Vidal Joyce 譯

在越來越多生物滅絕的同時，一種不太受人類關(guān)注的資源也在慢慢消失——自然界的聲音，試想一下，如果有一天，我們只能從電子設(shè)備上聽到大自然的聲音，那將是何其悲哀！

when musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the1)pristine coral reef waters of Fiji, he picks up a2)raucous mix of sighs, beats,3)glissandos, cries, groans, grunts, hits and clicks.

The water4)pulsates with the sound of creatures vying for5)acoustic bandwidth. He hears6)crustaceans, parrot fish,7)anemones,8)wrasses, sharks, shrimps, puffers and9)surgeonfish. Some10)gnash their teeth, others use their bladders or tails to make sound. Sea anemones grunt and belch. Every creature on the reef makes its own sound.

But half a mile away, where the same reef is badly damaged, he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp. It is, he says, the desolate sound of extinction.

音樂家、自然主義者伯尼·克勞斯把擴音器放進斐濟一片清澈的珊瑚礁海域，他聽到一陣亂哄哄的聲音：嘆息聲、拍打聲、滑音、尖叫聲、呻吟聲、呼嚕聲、撞擊聲以及滴答聲。

各種海洋生物爭相發(fā)出聲音，海水伴隨著這些聲音而跳動。他聽到了貝類、鸚哥魚、?？?、瀨魚、鯊魚、蝦、河豚和刺尾魚發(fā)出的聲音。有些海洋生物在咬牙，還有一些在利用它們身上的囊袋和尾巴發(fā)出聲音。海葵發(fā)出咕嚕咕嚕的排氣聲。礁石里的每種生物都在發(fā)出自己的聲音。

然而，在半英里之外的同一片礁石里，他只能聽到海浪聲以及一些蝦在跳動的聲音，這里的礁石受到了嚴重的破壞。他說，這是生物滅絕的荒涼之聲。

1) pristine ['pr?sta?n] adj. 干凈的；質(zhì)樸的

2) raucous ['r??k?s] adj. 喧鬧的

3) glissando [gl?'sɑ?nd??] n. 滑奏法，滑奏部

4) pulsate ['p?lse?t] v. 搏動，跳動，有規(guī)律的跳動

5) acoustic [?'ku?st?k] adj. 有關(guān)聲音的，聽覺的

6) crustacean [kr?s'te??j?n] n. 甲殼類動物

7) anemone [?'nem?n?] n. ?？?/p>

8) wrasse [r?s] n. 瀨魚

9) surgeonfsh ['sз?d??nf??] n. 刺尾魚，一種熱帶魚，因其尾柄兩側(cè)多銳棘，像外科手術(shù)刀一樣鋒利，所以被稱為“外科醫(yī)生”

10) gnash [n??] v. 咬牙

Krause has spent 40 years recording over 15,000 species, collecting 4,500 hours of sound from many of the world’s pristine habitats.

But such is the rate of species extinction and the11)deterioration of these pristine habitats that he estimates half his recordings are now archives, impossible to repeat because the habitats no longer exist or they have been so compromised by human noise. His tapes are possibly the only record of the original diversity of life in these places.

“A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming12)deafening,” he writes in a new book, The Great Animal Orchestra. “Little by little the vast orchestra of life, the chorus of the natural world, is in the process of being quieted. There has been a massive decrease in the density and diversity of key vocal creatures, both large and small. The sense of desolation extends beyond mere silence.”

Hawaii, he says, is the extinction capital of the world.“In a couple of centuries since the islands were populated by Europeans, half the 140 bird species have disappeared. In Madagascar, 15 species of13)lemur, an elephant bird, a pygmy hippo and an estimated half of all the animals have gone extinct.”

Even partially disturbed habitats lose much of their life for many years, says Krause. Recordings of a meadow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of San Francisco before the surrounding forest was selectively logged in the 1980s, sounds very different to when Krause returned a year later.

“The overall richness of sound was gone, as was the thriving density and diversity of birds. The only prominent sounds were the stream and the hammering of a Williamson’s14)sapsucker. Over the past 20 years I have returned a dozen times to the same spot at the same time of year, but the bio-acoustic vitality I had captured before logging has not yet returned.”

One in four mammals is threatened with extinction, he says. With the exception of a few sites, frog populations are in decline worldwide and birds are beginning to show radical signs of territorial shifting.

克勞斯花了40年的時間，走遍世界的原始生物棲息地，錄下了15000種生物的聲音，錄制的聲音長度達到4500個小時。

然而，越來越多的生物瀕臨滅絕，這些原始生物棲息地的環(huán)境也在不斷惡化，克勞斯推測，他的錄音現(xiàn)在有一半都已成為歷史，無法重現(xiàn)，因為這些棲息地或已不復(fù)存在，或已被人類制造出來的噪聲所侵擾。他的錄音可能是記錄下這些地方的原始生物多樣性的唯一資料。

“隨著人類的聲音愈發(fā)震耳欲聾，自然界卻逐漸變得一片死寂?！彼谄湫聲睹烂畹膭游锕芟覙穲F》中如此寫道。“生命管弦樂團，自然界的大合唱正在一點一點地消失。動物主唱們的數(shù)量和種類已急劇下降，大型動物和小型動物皆是如此。這種荒涼感不僅僅是因為沉寂?！?/p>

夏威夷，他說，是世界上生物滅絕最嚴重的地方?！白詺W洲人移居此處的幾個世紀以來，原有的140種鳥類已經(jīng)消失了一半。在馬達加斯加，15種狐猴、1種象鳥、1種侏儒河馬以及估計有一半的動物都已滅絕?！?/p>

多年來，即使是在只有局部遭到破壞的生物棲息地，也有許多生物遭到了滅頂之災(zāi)，克勞斯說道?？藙谒乖谂f金山東部的內(nèi)華達山脈內(nèi)的一片草原進行錄音，之后，在上世紀80年代，這里周圍的部分森林遭到了砍伐，一年后當克勞斯再次回到這里時，這里的聲音已經(jīng)不復(fù)當初。

“這里的聲音不如以前那般豐富多樣，鳥類的數(shù)量及種類也大大減少。唯一明顯的聲音是水流聲以及威廉森吸汁啄木鳥敲啄樹木的聲音。在過去的20年間，我曾多次在一年的同一個時段回到同一個地方，但我錄到的生物聲音卻始終沒有再像森林被砍伐前那樣富有活力?！?/p>

有四分之一的哺乳動物正面臨著滅絕的危機，他說。全世界的青蛙數(shù)量都在減少，許多鳥類開始發(fā)出遷徙的信號，只有個別地區(qū)例外。

11) deterioration [d?,t??r??'re???n] n. 變壞，退化，惡化

12) deafening ['def?n??] adj. 震耳欲聾的

13) lemur ['li?m?] n. 狐猴

14) sapsucker ['s?p,s?k?(r)] n. 吸汁啄木鳥

15) pandemonium [,p?nd?'m??nj?m] n. 喧囂；大混亂；大吵大鬧

16) consonance ['k?ns?n?ns] n. 一致，調(diào)和

“Things are beginning to quiet down in the pristine habitats. The combination of shrinking habitats and increasing human15)pandemonium, have produced conditions under which the channels necessary for creature survival are being completely overloaded. The voices of the wild in their purest states where no [human] noise is present are splendid symphonies.”

But the wild natural world, comprised of vast areas not managed by humans, rarely exists now except for a few isolated spots like the Alaskan wilderness, the far Canadian north, Siberia, the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, and the Brazilian Pantanal which he says are still rich with natural sound.

“The fragile weave of natural sound is being torn apart by our seemingly boundless need to conquer the environment, rather than fnding a way to abide in16)consonance with it.”

“原始的生物棲息地正在慢慢沉寂。棲息地的日益縮小以及人類活動的與日俱增使得各種生物的必要生存空間大大超出負載。不夾雜（人類）噪音、最純粹的自然之聲是一支支悅耳動聽的交響曲?！?/p>

然而現(xiàn)今，除了一些與世隔絕的地方外，比如阿拉斯加荒野、加拿大北部偏遠地區(qū)、西伯利亞、阿根廷和烏拉圭的潘帕斯草原以及巴西的潘塔納爾濕地，尚未受到人類管制的荒野之地已所剩不多，克勞斯說在這些地方仍能聽到豐富的自然之聲。

“我們?nèi)祟惪傁胝鞣匀欢窍朕k法與其和諧共處，我們對于征服自然環(huán)境的需求似乎永無止境，但我們的需求也正在一點一點地摧毀大自然那脆弱的聲音?！?/p>

A Great Silence Spreads over the Natural World