美国科学60秒 SSS 2012-12-04
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(十二)月
英语课
Mercury tends to show up in strange places, like swordfish and sharks. Now researchers have detected small amounts of mercury in the fog that bathes the California redwoods, near Santa Cruz.
The mercury levels they've measured are in parts per trillion, orders of magnitude less than the more worrisome parts per million levels tracked by the EPA and FDA. So the fog is not dangerous. But it does contain four times as much mercury as local rainwater does.
And when the fog rolls in, it collects on redwood leaves, and drips to the ground, where it enters the food chain. Preliminary data suggest that during the foggy season, wolf spiders in the area see their mercury levels multiply by five. The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Researchers say the mercury in coastal 1 fog probably comes from deep ocean waters, which well to the surface every summer. But its original source may be coal-burning power plants, or pollution from mercury mines dating back to the gold rush. Either way, it's a reminder 2 that whatever we dump into the environment will probably pay us a return visit.
adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的
- The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
- This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。