研究:氣候變化加速冷血物種滅絕

研究:氣候變化加速冷血物種滅絕

For more than a century, aging has been explained by the rate of metabolism — the faster the body functions and the sooner it reproduces, the shorter the lifespan. But is it so?

一個多世紀(jì)以來，衰老一直被解釋為新陳代謝的速度——身體功能越快，繁殖越快，壽命就越短。但事實果真如此嗎?

Researchers from the Queen’s University Belfast and Tel Aviv University found reasons to doubt the ‘Rate of Living’ theory: They didn’t find any correlation between the rate of living and lifespan.

貝爾法斯特女王大學(xué)和特拉維夫大學(xué)的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了質(zhì)疑“壽命”理論的理由:他們沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)生存速度和壽命之間有任何聯(lián)系。

Their expansive sample study rather found a “huge” impact of global warming on the life expectancy of cold-blooded species such as reptiles and amphibians. A warmer climate indeed shortened the lifespan of such species, pushing them towards faster extinction.

他們廣泛的樣本研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，全球變暖對爬行動物和兩棲動物等冷血動物的預(yù)期壽命有“巨大”影響。氣候變暖確實縮短了這些物種的壽命，將它們推向更快的滅絕。

Researchers from the two varsities analysed metabolism of 4,100 land vertebrate species from across the world and didn’t find any effect of the ‘rate of living’ on ageing. According to their release:

來自這兩家機構(gòu)的研究人員分析了來自世界各地的4100種陸地脊椎動物的新陳代謝，并沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)“生存速度”對衰老有任何影響。據(jù)他們透露:

Over 100 years old, until now the theory had not been tested at a global scale with all land vertebrates and there were limitations with the range of species the theory was tested on.

該理論已有100多年的歷史，但至今尚未在全球范圍內(nèi)對所有陸地脊椎動物進行測試，而且該理論所測試的物種范圍也存在局限性。

The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, found the rate of ageing “in cold-blooded organisms including amphibians and reptiles are linked to high temperatures”.

這項發(fā)表在《全球生態(tài)與生物地理學(xué)》雜志上的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，“包括兩棲動物和爬行動物在內(nèi)的冷血生物的衰老速度與高溫有關(guān)”。

The researchers have now proposed an alternative hypothesis to the ‘rate of living’: The hotter the environment is, the faster the rate of living that in turn leads to more accelerated aging and a shorter lifespan.

研究人員現(xiàn)在提出了“生活率”的另一種假設(shè):環(huán)境越熱，生活率就越快，從而加速衰老，縮短壽命。

The findings can be critical to understanding factors contributing to extinctions, especially at the modern times of a worldwide decline in biodiversity, said Daniel Pincheira-Donoso — a co-author of the study and a lecturer in ‘Evolution and Macroecology’ at the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University.

研究報告的作者之一、皇后大學(xué)(Queen ' s University)生物科學(xué)學(xué)院(School of Biological Sciences)“進化與宏觀生態(tài)學(xué)”(Evolution and Macroecology)講師丹尼爾·平切拉-多諾索(Daniel Pincheira-Donoso)說，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)對于理解導(dǎo)致物種滅絕的因素可能至關(guān)重要，尤其是在當(dāng)今世界生物多樣性下降的時代。

“Now we know that the life-expectancy of cold-blooded vertebrates is linked to environmental temperatures, we could expect to see their lifespans further reduced as temperatures continue to rise through global warming,” Pincheira-Donoso said.

平切拉-多諾索說:“現(xiàn)在我們知道，冷血脊椎動物的壽命與環(huán)境溫度有關(guān)，隨著全球變暖導(dǎo)致氣溫持續(xù)上升，它們的壽命可能會進一步縮短。”

The team’s findings mean that cold-blooded species are more vulnerable to global warming and faster extinction. “Indeed, if increasing ambient temperatures reduces longevity, it may make these species more prone to go extinct as the climate warms,” said Gavin Stark, a lead author of the study at Tel Aviv University.

該研究小組的發(fā)現(xiàn)意味著，冷血物種更容易受到全球變暖和更快滅絕的影響。特拉維夫大學(xué)這項研究的主要作者加文·斯塔克說:“事實上，如果環(huán)境溫度升高導(dǎo)致壽命縮短，那么隨著氣候變暖，這些物種可能更容易滅絕。”