从扬声器中播放健康珊瑚礁的声音，可以拯救垂死的珊瑚

Scientists have looked at various methods to save endangered coral reefs for years, looking at everything from growing them in labs to making them pollution resistant. A new study suggests that sounds from healthy reefs could also play a role in saving them.

多年来，科学家们一直在研究各种拯救濒危珊瑚礁的方法，从实验室培育到抗污染，无所不包。一项新的研究表明，来自健康珊瑚礁的声音也可以起到拯救它们的作用。

Known as “acoustic enrichment,” researchers believe that putting underwater speakers near the dying reefs could help bring young fish to the reefs and restore them.

研究人员认为，在濒临死亡的珊瑚礁附近放置水下扬声器，可以帮助把年轻的鱼类带到珊瑚礁，并使它们恢复生机。

Fish are crucial for coral reefs to function as healthy ecosystems,” said the study’s lead author, Tim Gordon, of the University of Exeter, in a statement. “Boosting fish populations in this way could help to kick-start natural recovery processes, counteracting the damage we’re seeing on many coral reefs around the world.”

研究的主要作者、埃克塞特大学的蒂姆·戈登在一份声明中说：“鱼类对珊瑚礁发挥健康生态系统的作用至关重要。”。“以这种方式增加鱼类数量有助于启动自然恢复进程，抵消我们在世界各地许多珊瑚礁上看到的破坏。”

The researchers were working on the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system, and placed loudspeakers near parts of dead coral and found “twice as many fish arrived — and stayed,” as compared to parts where there was no sound from speakers. Not only did the number of fish double, but the number of species increased by 50 percent, the researchers added.

研究人员正在世界上最大的珊瑚礁系统大堡礁(Great Barrier Reef)进行研究，并在部分死珊瑚附近放置了扩音器，发现“到达并停留的鱼是没有扩音器的鱼的两倍”。研究人员补充说，不仅鱼的数量增加了一倍，而且物种数量也增加了50%。

“Healthy coral reefs are remarkably noisy places — the crackle of snapping shrimp and the whoops and grunts of fish combine to form a dazzling biological soundscape,” one of the study’s co-authors, University of Exeter professor Steve Simpson, said. “Juvenile fish home in on these sounds when they’re looking for a place to settle.”

研究报告的作者之一、埃克塞特大学的史蒂夫·辛普森教授说:“健康的珊瑚礁是非常吵杂的地方——噼啪作响的小虾、呼噜呼噜的鱼，这些声音组合在一起形成了令人眼花缭乱的生物声景。”“幼鱼在寻找安身之处时，就会听到这些声音。”

All parts of the food chain were attracted to the reefs, including herbivores, detritivores, planktivores and predatory piscivores, the researchers found.

研究人员发现，食物链的所有部分都被珊瑚礁所吸引，包括草食动物、碎屑动物、浮游生物和食肉鱼类。

“Reefs become ghostly quiet when they are degraded, as the shrimps and fish disappear, but by using loudspeakers to restore this lost soundscape, we can attract young fish back again,” Simpson added.

辛普森补充说:“随着虾和鱼的消失，珊瑚礁退化后会变得幽静，但通过使用扩音器来恢复失去的声景，我们可以再次吸引年轻的鱼回来。”

Australian Institute of Marine Science fish biologist Mark Meekan noted that bringing fish won’t bring the reef “back to life automatically,” but it will aid in recovery, allowing it to be cleaned and “create space for corals to regrow.”

澳大利亚海洋科学研究所的鱼类生物学家马克·米坎(Mark Meekan)指出，捕捞鱼类不会让珊瑚礁“自动恢复生机”，但会有助于珊瑚礁的恢复，使其得以清洁，并“为珊瑚的再生创造空间”。

The research has been published in the scientific journal Nature.

这项研究已发表在科学杂志《自然》上。