Seed-Scattering Birds May Help Trees Cope with Climate Change
囤积狂鸟类帮助树木对抗气候变化

A new review paper emphasizes the crucial role birds play in helping trees colonize new habitats—especially in the face of a changing climate.
一篇新的综述文章强调鸟类对于树木扩张栖息地，特别是在气候变化条件下的重要作用。

撰文/播音 克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔 ( Christopher Intagliata)
翻译 Meatle
审校 邰伦玥

The tree people in the Lord of the Rings—the Ents—can get around by walking. But for real trees, well, it's harder to uproot. "Because it's a sessile organism, literally, rooted into the ground, it is unable to leave and go elsewhere." Mario Pesendorfer, a behavioral ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "When a tree first starts growing in a certain area, it's likely that the climactic envelope, so the temperature, humidity, soil composition and so on suits it, because it would otherwise be unable to grow from a seedling. But as it ages,these conditions may change and the area around it may no longer be suitable for its offspring."
指环王中的人形植物——树人，可以四处走动。然而，现实中的树木无法移动。“因为树木是固着生物，字面上理解，就是植根于地上，无法离开或是移动。”康奈尔鸟类实验室(the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)的行为生态学家马里奥·帕森多佛(Mario Pesendorfer)说，“当树木开始在某一区域生长，该区域的气候特征，即那里的温度、湿度、土壤组成很可能都适合于这种树木，否则它们并不会萌发。然而随着树木的成长，这些条件可能发生改变，而这个区域会变得不适宜这些树木的后代成长。”

And if that happens? Walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, oaks, pines—many rely exclusively on so-called "scatter-hoarders," like birds, to move their hefty seeds to new locales. "Many members of the family Corvidae—the crows, jays and magpies—are scatter-hoarders. Meaning they like to store food for the winter, which they then subsequently retrieve."
而若这种气候变化发生了，该如何对应？核桃树、榛树、栗子、橡树、松树等为代表的一些树木依靠具有分散囤积(scatter-hoarders)习性的动物，比如鸟类，去将自己巨大的种子散播到新的地方。“大多数鸦科动物，比如乌鸦、松鸡、喜鹊等，均是分散囤积动物。它们喜欢为冬天囤积食物，以便需要时取回。”

Or not. And when they do forget something, a seedling has a chance to grow, sometimes a good distance away. "The Clark's nutcracker, which is found in alpine regions of western North America, is definitely the rock star among the scatter-hoarding corvids. They hide up to 100,000 seeds per year, up to 30 kilometers away from the seed source, and have a very close symbiotic relationship with several pine species, most notably the whitebark pine.”
然而现实并不如此，因为这些小鸟确实常会忘记被囤积起来的种子。这些种子有机会在很远的地方萌芽、生长。“啄木鸦(The Clark's nutcracker , Woodpecker Crow)，一种在北美西部高山发现的小鸟，绝对是分散囤积鸦类中的巨星。它们每年将多达10万颗种子藏起来，最远能移动到离母树30公里的地方。它们与多种松树保持着亲密的共生关系，特别是白皮松。”

Pesendorfer and his colleagues catalogue the seed-scattering activities of the Clark's nutcracker and its cousins in a new review paper, in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications. [Mario B. Pesendorfer et al, Scatter-hoarding corvids as seed dispersers for oaks and pines: A review of a widely distributed mutualism and its utility to habitat restoration]
帕森多佛与他的同僚在他们新的综述文章中列出了啄木鸦与其表亲的分散囤积活动。该文章发表在 The Condor: Ornithological Applications 上。[Mario B. Pesendorfer et al, Scatter-hoarding corvids as seed dispersers for oaks and pines: A review of a widely distributed mutualism and its utility to habitat restoration]

They also write that, as trees outgrow their ideal habitats in the face of climate change, or battle new insects and disease, these flying ecosystem engineers could be a big help replanting trees. It's a solution, Pesendorfer says, that's good for us—getting birds to do the work is cheap and effective— and it could give vulnerable oaks and pines the option to truly "make like a tree and leave."
他们同样写到，随着气候变化，树木的生长地变得不再那么理想，或者遭受新型昆虫与疾病的侵扰时，鸟类，这些飞行的生态工程师将会对树木的重植有很大的帮助。帕森多佛认为，这是对我们有利的解决方法，因为利用鸟类进行重植是一个廉价而有效的方法，可以给脆弱的橡树与松树真正“挺直身板，自信离开”的机会。