227 tree species dominate Amazon landscape 兩百二十七種樹種主控亞馬遜地景

A student and professor cover dry leaf samples with bags as they study climate change in the Amazon rainforest at Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios, Peru on Dec. 3 last year.
一位學生與一位教授去年十二月三日在祕魯馬德雷德迪奧斯區坦波巴塔國家保護區研究亞馬遜雨林的氣候變化時用袋子蓋住乾樹葉樣本。

Photo: Reuters
照片：路透

Despite being home to about 16,000 tree species, just 227 “hyperdominant” species account for half of Amazonia’s total trees, a study suggests.

An international team of researchers found that the region was, in total, home to an estimated 390 billion trees. Writing in Science, they added that the rarest 11,000 species made up only 0.12% of the tree cover.

The results were based on a survey of 1,170 plots and half a million trees across the six million square kilometer area, often described as the lungs of the world.

The authors said that the underlying cause of the hyper dominance of the 227 species, which accounted for 1.4% of the estimated number of species in the region, remained unknown.

The lead author Hans ter Steege said, “We don’t really know why these species are so incredibly dominant because they do not have any particular ecological feature that stands out.”

The most dominant species was identified as Euterpe precatoria, a palm tree native to central and southern America, with a mean estimate population of more than five billion individuals within Amazonia.

Conversely, the researchers noted that the rarest 5,800 species had communities with fewer than 1,000 individuals.

(Liberty Times)

TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字

1. dominate v.

佔主要地位；支配；控制

(zhan4 zhu3 yao4 di4 wei4; zhi1 pei4; kong4 zhi4)

例: Taipei 101 dominates the Taipei skyline.

(台北１０１是台北天際的首要標的。)

2. account for adj.

佔；做出說明 (zhan4; zuo4 chu1 shuo1 ming2)

例: Police said that the identities of 46 people are still not accounted for.

(警方表示仍有四十六人身分不明。)

3. stand out v. phr.

醒目；突出；傑出 (xing3 mu4; tu2 chu1; jie2 chu1)

例: She stood out among the students by her self-discipline.

(在學生群中，她的自律使她與眾不同.)

儘管孕育約一萬六千種樹種，但僅只兩百二十七種「超優勢」樹種就佔了亞馬遜雨林所有林木的半數，研究推測。

一支國際研究團隊發現，該區域估計共有約三千九百億棵樹。在這篇發表於「科學」期刊的研究中，他們補充說，最罕見的一萬一千種樹種僅佔植被的百分之零點一二。

相關結果奠基於對這塊佔地廣達六百萬平方公里區域內的一千一百七十處林區、五十萬棵樹的調查，該區常被稱為世界之肺。

作者群指出，這兩百二十七種樹種的超優勢根本原因仍然不明。這些樹種佔該區推估的樹種量的百分之一點四。

研究主要撰文者漢斯．德．史提吉說︰「我們真的不知道為何這些樹種如此不可思議地佔優勢，因為它們並無任何突出的特定生態特性。」

最優勢的樹種被鑑別出為「串珠埃塔棕」，這種原產於中美與南美的棕櫚樹，在亞馬遜雨林內平均估計超過五十億棵。

相反的，研究人員指出，最罕見的五千八百種樹種，其樹群不到一千棵。

（自由時報／翻譯：魏國金）

Hot weather and air conditioning contributing to spike in heart attacks 熱天進出冷氣房 心肌梗塞急症激增

TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字

1. sweltering adj. 悶熱的 (men1 re4 de5)

例: The apartment was sweltering because the air conditioner broke. (公寓裡空調壞掉，所以熱得喘不過氣來。)

2. heatstroke n. 中暑 (zhong4 shu3)

例: High body temperature, lack of sweating, nausea and a headache are all signs of heatstroke. (中暑的徵兆包含體溫高、缺乏汗、噁心感和頭痛。)

3. nausea n. 噁心感 (e3 xin1 gan3)

例: A wave of nausea swept over him and he suddenly fainted.

In the sweltering heat, you are constantly going in and out of air-conditioned rooms, intermittently hot and cold, which can increase the risk of having a heart attack and be hazardous to your health. Chi Mei Hospital’s Chili branch in Greater Tainan recently received three patients having heart attacks, all allegedly caused by being hot and cold off and on because they kept going in and out of air-conditioned rooms, which caused the capillaries in the heart to constrict and lead to coronary muscle blockage. 大熱天進出冷氣房，忽冷忽熱的情況容易導致心肌梗塞，危害健康。佳里奇美醫院近來就接獲三名急性心肌梗塞的急診病患，皆因進出冷氣房忽冷忽熱時造成心血管收縮，進而造成冠狀動脈阻塞。

The high temperatures last month broke historical records. According to statistics from the Bureau of Health Promotion, as many as 427 people sought medical attention because of heatstroke last month, which is twice as high as last year. The high temperatures are putting people’s lives in severe danger. 六月均溫破歷史紀錄，國健局統計，六月因中暑急診的人數高達四百二十七人，是去年同期的兩倍，高溫對民眾健康造成嚴重威脅。

With the relentless heat in recent days, Chi Mei Hospital’s Chili branch had three heart attack patients in the emergency room that were thought to have been related to the weather. Kuo Ping-jang, head of the emergency department at the hospital, said that the patients, two over the age of 80 and one 40-something, came into the emergency room complaining of chest pain, difficulties breathing and looking unwell. After an electrocardiogram (EKG) confirmed that they all had acute myocardial infarctions, they were given emergency treatment along with drugs and immediately sent to the hospital’s Yongkang branch, where they underwent cardiac catheterization. All of the patients have since left the hospital. 近日天氣持續高溫，佳里奇美醫院即已接連接獲三起疑與天氣有關的急症病例。佳里奇美醫院急診室主任郭炳讓表示，兩位八十歲病患及一位四十餘歲的病患被送急診，到院時均表示胸痛及呼吸不順，表情痛苦，以心電圖檢查確認是急性心肌梗塞，經緊急處置、給藥，立即轉送永康奇美醫學中心，由心臟內科進行心導管手術，目前均已出院。

Kuo says that heart attacks are caused by a shortage of blood supply to the heart due to coronary muscle blockage, and if you do not seek emergency treatment immediately it could do irreversible damage to the heart. The symptoms and warning signs of a heart attack include pressure or tightness in the center of the chest, nausea, paleness of pallor, anxiety, shortness of breath and a cold sweat, Kuo says. 郭炳讓並指出，心肌梗塞是冠狀動脈阻塞造成心臟肌肉缺少血液供應，若未立即急救，可能導致心臟損害。病症的特徵為胸骨後或心前區突然發生壓迫感或悶痛，伴有噁心、面色蒼白、煩燥心悸、呼吸短促、冒冷汗。

People typically assume that the low temperatures during winter increase one’s risk of having a heart attack, but Kuo says that the risk is actually slightly higher in the summer than it is in winter. The main reason, he says, is because people usually go in and out of air-conditioned rooms when the weather is scorching hot, which can cause the capillaries in the heart to constrict improperly. If the capillaries in a person’s heart already have problems it can affect the flow of blood and cause blockage in the coronary muscle, leading to an acute myocardial infarction. 他強調，大家常以為冬天氣溫驟降較易心肌梗塞，其實夏天的病例還略高於冬天。主因天氣炎熱時，室內多會開冷氣，民眾進出冷氣房，忽冷忽熱，容易造成心血管不當收縮，血管不佳的病人可能影響血液流量，進而造成冠狀動脈阻塞，引發急性心肌梗塞。

(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat) （自由時報記者黃博郎）

Resources:

http://www.yogajournal.com/health/2613
http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/health-and-wellness/20-postures-healthy-heart