时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2013年(四月)


英语课

 


Pioneering Soil Researcher Wins Top Environment Prize



Biologist Diana Wall went to the ends of the earth - the seemingly lifeless Antarctic desert - to study the life in soil.


"What soil life does for us, it provides us with many benefits that we don't really think about," Wall said. "I think the thing that surprises people most about soil is when they take a handful of it, this is a lot of life that has evolved over time, there are food webs in there, there are interactions going on by the second, to transform what we know as things above ground.”


Over the past two decades, she's explored the effect this complex and fragile ecosystem 1 has on climate and biodiversity.


This month, Wall’s pioneering work won the 2013 Tyler Environmental Prize, one of the top international environmental awards.


The Colorado State University researcher stresses that the ground beneath our feet is more than dirt.


"All these organisms in soil are providing us with things such as soil fertility, more nutrients 2 for plant growth, they are providing us with all sorts of controls on these plant parasites," Wall said. "Another one is they help to clean the air and the water.“ 


Other scientists are beginning to think about how this hidden life in soils affects food security and the release of carbon dioxide.


"Organisms in soil breathe, and they release CO2 and store CO2, and they store other types of carbon," Wall said. "You disrupt that cycle, then all of a sudden we have more CO2 in the atmosphere, we have more climate change, which is affecting the soils, so it’s an intimate feedback between the soil organisms and the atmosphere.


She calls the biodiversity of the soil ecosystem “the missing link” in our effort to protect the world’s environment.


"Climate change, for example, the Framework Convention to Combat Climate Change, as well as desertification, loss of biodiversity…all these things are intertwined, and, as we move forward, we have to think about how do we manage our soils and the life within our soils, so that we can manage ourselves," she said.


According to Wall, healthy soils are vital not just to making agriculture more sustainable, but to slowing global climate change - efforts we all have a stake in.




n.生态系统
  • This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
  • We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。
n.(食品或化学品)营养物,营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )
  • a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
  • Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
acate pneumonic tuberculosis
air tanker
Allen key
amynologic
AOEL
AORTF
aperture-field method
Bactris
benzene hexachloride (bhc)
cage structure
camcorders
caraca
carved wooden necklace
ccr(current cell rate)
centerbody
charge turbulent fluctuation
circle shear
circular shelf dryer
closed cycle
coefficient of self oscillation
conjugate locus
conservations of mass
corrosion resisting property
cost utility analysis
cross-adaptation
crumpacker
cryogenic heat pipe
crystalliser
diacetyl-dihydroxydiphenylisatin
dimethyl tartrate
double punch and blank-column detection
dower and courtesy interests
Duhring's diagram
enteric bacillus
epistatic gene
EPO-R
family Lobotidae
Fleet vehicle
fuze firing mechanism
gets along
graduated hopper-charging
gynaeco-
Hall flowmeter
hindshanks
honey glands
Johnny on the spot
lehmannite
listenest
literary critics
make one's escape
marieclaude
mechanization of maintenance
miniatus
molecular absorption band
mounting metallurgical specimens
musculus extensor digitorum longus pedis
network-connected
neutral phosphate
NIH-7519
orates
paddle type agitator
papillary foramen
paris-journal
Phyllomahaleb
pitching change
platform barrier
POPSIPT
Porlezzina
propeller-regulating mechanism
pulpiform
rassling
recovery flap
remerging
resistance-weld mill
rock bolting jumbo
S.S.P.
spheriflex hub
spring gage
stopine
sturrocks
subdetector
superpredicate
switching line
tail throat of a hump yard
teeming stage
tetralogies of fallot
the Met
The sands are running out.
theater air priority number
Themar
tie-in line
tin plate printing
tinamidaes
trachodonts
transfer target
turning block
turpentine wood oil
universal cutter and tool grinder
weather search radar
zahava
Zarp