标签 雨林 下的文章

奥林匹克国家公园霍河雨林中的苔藓大厅 ，华盛顿州，美国 Hall of Mosses trail in the Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington (© James Randklev/Getty Images)

不一样的热带雨林 A different kind of rainforest

绿色星期五

想象一下，你可以花一天时间在森林里徒步，沉浸在郁郁葱葱的绿色空间中，而不是疯狂地检查节假日购物清单上的一件件商品。欢迎来到“绿色星期五”！它是“黑色星期五”的环保替代品，创立于2015年。在“绿色星期五”，我们鼓励人们在购物时做出更加理智的选择，拥抱大自然，拒绝冲动性消费。因此，请在这个绿色星期五让自己暂停片刻，投入大自然的怀抱吧！

奥林匹克国家公园的苔藓长廊位于华盛顿州的霍河雨林。这片雨林不同于大多数人印象中的热带雨林，它有一条短暂但迷人的环形幽径，是各类苔藓的家园，这些苔藓优雅地覆盖在雄伟的云杉和铁杉上。去这里前请记得带件外套，因为这片森林是美国本土最潮湿的地方，年降雨量接近130英寸。难怪这里如此绿意盎然！

Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington

Imagine spending the day hiking amid these moss-covered trees instead of frantically checking items off your holiday shopping list. Welcome to Green Friday, the environmental alternative to Black Friday. The aim is to encourage people to make ethical shopping choices—or to refrain from shopping altogether and embrace nature instead.

A good place to start is the Hall of Mosses at Olympic National Park, in Washington's Hoh Rain Forest. This fantastical landscape is a temperate rainforest with an enchanting loop trail through mosses gracefully draped over majestic spruces and hemlocks. Bring a jacket though; this forest is the wettest in the contiguous United States with an annual rainfall of nearly 130 inches. No wonder it's so green!

亚马孙雨林的树冠探险，秘鲁 Suspension bridge in Tambopata National Reserve, Amazon Basin, Peru (© Pere Rubi/Getty Images)

随着亚马孙的树冠摇摆 Sway with the Amazonian canopy

坦博帕塔国家保护区，秘鲁

穿过亚马孙雨林中的这座吊桥，意味着你要依靠这些树木作为支撑。同样，地球生物的生存也依赖于亚马孙雨林的这些树木。亚马孙流域储存的碳是全球化石燃料年排放量的10倍以上，这里还是地球上10%已知物种的家园。亚马孙河是世界上流域最广、流量最大的河流，其河流入海流量占全球的20%。从安第斯山脉到大西洋，亚马孙河流经了八个国家。今天的照片拍摄于秘鲁的坦博帕塔国家保护区，这里是巨型角雕、金刚鹦鹉、美洲虎、水豚、树懒和巨型水獭的家园。

Tambopata National Reserve, Peru

To cross this suspension bridge in the canopy of the Amazon rainforest means depending on the trees of the forest to support you. Similarly, the survival of life on Earth depends on the trees of the Amazon forest. Amazonia stores more carbon than 10 times the annual global emissions from fossil fuel and supports approximately 10% of all known animal and plant species on Earth. The Amazon River discharges more water than any other river on earth, and almost 20% of all water that flows into the ocean from rivers travels through the Amazon River basin. While almost two thirds of the Amazon lie in Brazil, it stretches across seven other countries, from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. This section of canopy is in Peru's Tambopata National Reserve, home to giant harpy eagles, macaws, jaguars, capybaras, sloths, and giant otters.

米尔福德峡湾附近的徒步雨林，新西兰 Rainforest hike near Milford Sound/Piopiotahi in New Zealand (© Jim Patterson/Tandem Stills + Motion)

“第八大奇迹”? The ‘eighth wonder'?

Milford Sound/Piopiotahi rainforest in New Zealand

Today we're taking a tramping trip to New Zealand's South Island to visit the place Rudyard Kipling once called the eighth wonder of the world, Milford Sound and its surrounding rainforest. Tramping, New Zealand-speak for hiking, is incredibly popular at Milford Sound. Nearly a million tourists visit the area every year, despite its somewhat remote location. Originally overlooked by European explorers, the area is now known for its beauty and abundance of wildlife. It's not uncommon for visitors to spot dolphins, humpback whales, and native Fiordland penguins.

Since 1998, Milford Sound is one of about 90 places in New Zealand to now officially have a dual name, joining its former European name with the Indigenous Māori name. Now known as Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, the Māori named the area after the extinct piopio bird. According to myth, the Māori hero, Māui, died during his quest to win immortality for mankind. A single piopio flew into the fjord to mourn him. This bird was memorialized in the name, as the Māori word ‘tahi' means ‘one.' The Māori people first traveled to the area centuries ago to hunt and fish. They also collected the precious pounamu (aka greenstone) used for trade, carving, and weaponry.

新西兰米尔福德湾/皮奥皮塔伊雨林

今天，我们将徒步前往新西兰南岛，参观曾经被称为世界第八大奇迹的鲁迪亚德·吉卜林（Rudyard Kipling），米尔福德湾（Milford Sound）及其周围的雨林。“徒步旅行”是新西兰人对徒步旅行的称呼，在米尔福德湾非常受欢迎。尽管该地区有些偏远，但每年仍有近100万游客前来观光。该地区最初被欧洲探险家所忽视，现在以其美丽和丰富的野生动物而闻名。游客看到海豚、座头鲸和本地的峡湾企鹅并不罕见。

自1998年以来，米尔福德湾是新西兰约90个正式拥有双重名称的地方之一，将其前欧洲名称与土著毛利人名称合并。现在被称为米尔福德湾/皮奥皮亚提，毛利人以已灭绝的皮奥皮奥鸟命名该地区。据传说，毛利人英雄毛利在为人类争取永生的过程中去世。一个皮奥飞进峡湾哀悼他。这只鸟以它的名字被纪念，因为毛利人单词“tahi”的意思是“一”几个世纪前，毛利人第一次来到该地区狩猎和捕鱼。他们还收集了珍贵的pounamu（又名绿石），用于贸易、雕刻和武器。

亚苏尼国家公园，厄瓜多尔 Yasuní National Park in Amazonian Ecuador (© Paul Bertner/Minden Pictures)

地球之肺 The lungs of Earth

World Rainforest Day

Perhaps no other place on Earth plays a more crucial role in sustaining life as we know it than the Amazon rainforest, the largest in the world. The Amazon spans nine countries in South America including Ecuador, where this pristine ecoregion is protected by the Yasuní National Park, shown here. Today is set aside as World Rainforest Day, to remember the vital role of this and other rainforests and to champion efforts to protect them. The world's rainforests are under threat like never before from deforestation driven by agriculture and cattle ranching. Some studies have indicated humans have degraded or destroyed more than half of the world's rainforests. Fewer trees mean warmer temperatures, which increases the risk of drought and wildfire and compounds the damage of deforestation.

The Amazon has been called the lungs of the planet because the estimated 390 billion trees here convert much of the oxygen humans and other animals need to survive. The Amazon also cools our planet by capturing and storing carbon. It is as much the planet's air conditioner as it is its lungs. For that reason, the health of rainforests is crucial to arresting climate change.

The other gift of rainforests, and of the Amazon in particular, is biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and insects in the Amazon is not in the thousands, but in the millions. Scientists estimate half of the planet's biodiversity exists in the Amazon. In fact, many of our modern pharmaceuticals are derived from Amazon plants. That makes the Amazon not just the Earth's lungs and air conditioning, but also its medicine cabinet.

世界雨林日

也许地球上没有其他地方比世界上最大的亚马逊雨林在维持生命方面发挥着更重要的作用。亚马逊河横跨包括厄瓜多尔在内的南美洲九个国家，这里的亚苏尼国家公园保护着这个原始的生态区。今天被定为世界雨林日，以纪念这片和其他雨林的重要作用，并支持保护它们的努力。由于农业和畜牧业造成的森林砍伐，世界雨林受到前所未有的威胁。一些研究表明，人类已经退化或破坏了世界上一半以上的雨林。树木减少意味着气温升高，这增加了干旱和野火的风险，并加剧了毁林的破坏。

亚马逊河被称为地球的肺，因为这里估计有3900亿棵树转化了人类和其他动物生存所需的大部分氧气。亚马逊还通过捕获和储存碳来冷却我们的地球。它既是地球的空调，也是地球的肺。因此，雨林的健康对于遏制气候变化至关重要。

热带雨林，尤其是亚马逊的另一个礼物是生物多样性。亚马逊河流域的植物、动物和昆虫种类不是数千种，而是数百万种。科学家估计，地球上一半的生物多样性存在于亚马逊地区。事实上，我们的许多现代药物都来自亚马逊植物。这使得亚马逊不仅是地球的肺和空调，而且还是它的药柜。

上弗洛雷斯塔附近晨雾中亚马逊雨林，巴西马托格罗索 Amazon rainforest with fog in the morning near Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil (© Pulsar Imagens/Alamy)

A misty morning in Brazil

The Amazon rainforest is big. Almost unimaginably big. To begin to grasp its immensity, consider these numbers: The Amazon rainforest covers about 2% of the world's surface area, nearly 2.1 million square miles across South America, mostly (nearly 60%) in the country you see here, Brazil. It's an area that accounts for over half the Earth's remaining rainforests. The breadth of biodiversity is incomparable–nearly 16,000 different tree species, 40,000 species of other plants, 2.5 million insect species, and over 2,000 different types of birds and mammals. Incredibly, perhaps a tenth of the planet's known species call the Amazon home, many of which have not even been identified.

Yet, despite its vastness and ecological riches, the Amazon and the world's rainforests in general are in jeopardy, with large swaths of these precious environments being stripped and spoiled every day. Recent analysis has revealed some ominous warning signs that the Amazon rainforest, long known as the 'Lungs of the World,' is now spewing out as much greenhouse gas as it can store because of rampant deforestation here. If true, this is a bad sign in our battle against climate change. Hopefully, these warnings will raise awareness about the importance of rainforests, and the vital 'carbon sink' role they play in creating and maintaining the air that we breath. The more we learn about rainforests, the more we appreciate how our own future, and the future of our planet, hinges upon their health.

巴西雾蒙蒙的早晨

亚马逊雨林很大。几乎难以想象的大。要开始理解它的浩瀚，考虑一下这些数字：亚马逊雨林覆盖了大约2%的世界表面积，几乎210万平方英里横跨南美洲，大部分（近60%）在你看到的国家，巴西。这个地区占了地球剩余雨林的一半以上。生物多样性的广度是无与伦比的——将近16000种不同的树种，40000种其他植物，250万种昆虫，2000多种不同类型的鸟类和哺乳动物。令人难以置信的是，地球上大约十分之一的已知物种称亚马逊为家，其中许多物种甚至还没有被确认。

然而，尽管亚马逊地区幅员辽阔，生态资源丰富，但它和整个世界的雨林都处于危险之中，大片宝贵的环境每天都被剥夺和破坏。最近的分析揭示了一些不祥的警告信号，长期以来被称为“世界之肺”的亚马逊雨林，由于这里森林砍伐猖獗，现在正喷出尽可能多的温室气体。如果这是真的，那么这是我们应对气候变化斗争中的一个坏迹象。希望这些警告能提高人们对雨林重要性的认识，以及它们在创造和维持我们呼吸的空气中所起的重要“碳汇”作用。我们对雨林了解得越多，我们就越了解我们自己的未来，以及我们星球的未来如何取决于它们的健康。

奥林匹克国家公园中的可可西里雨林，华盛顿州 The Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Washington state (© Jorge Romano/Offset by Shutterstock)

Welcome to the Hoh

Don't let this sunny picture fool you. The Hoh, a temperate rainforest on the western side of Olympic National Park in Washington state, sees between 12 and 14 feet of rain each year, making it one of the wettest places in the continental US. But all that moisture creates a lush, even mystical environment. The forest features a mix of conifers and deciduous trees draped heavily with moss, like the arching big leaf maple in our homepage image. A stroll through the forest will also reveal the massive Sitka spruce and western hemlock that may reach more than 300 feet up into the dense canopy. Below, the woods teem with ferns, lichen, and other vegetation. It's an enchanted forest right out of a fairy tale.