2019-06-29 L400 How Trees Affect the Weather

Biologists from the University of Utah including William Anderegg, Anna Trugman, and David Bowling have led new research and discovered that some trees and plants are prolific spendthrifts in drought conditions, "spending" precious soil water to cool themselves and, in the process, making droughts more intense. The researchers published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
来自犹他州大学的生物学家，包括WA、AT和DB，组织了一项新的研究，并且这个研究发现在久旱条件下，一些树木和植物下是多产的挥霍者，会“花费”宝贵的土壤水（地下水）来使自己冷却下来，然而这使得干旱情况更加严重。 研究人员在国家科学院上发表了他们的研究成果

Anderegg explained that they show that the actual physiology of the plant matters. How trees take up, transport, and evaporate water, can influence societally essential extreme events, like severe droughts that can affect people and cities.
安德莱格解释说，它们发现了植物的实际生理状况。树木如何吸收、运输和蒸发水，会影响社会上必不可少的极端事件，比如严重的干旱，会影响到人们和城市。

In his research, Anderegg examined how tree traits affect how well forests can handle hot and dry conditions. He discovered that some trees and plants possess an internal plumbing system that slows down the movement of water, helping the plants to minimize water loss during the hot and dry periods. However, other plants have a system more suited for transporting large quantities of water vapor into the air, larger openings on leaves, more capacity to move water within the organism. Past works on Anderegg have been based on how those traits determine how well trees and forests can weather droughts. This new research, however, asks a different question: how do those traits affect the drought itself?
在他的研究中，安格鲁研究树木的特性如何影响森林应对炎热和干旱的能力，他发现，一些树木的植物体内的水管系统会减慢水的流动，从而在帮助植物在炎热和干燥程度下水分流失降到最低。然而，其他植物有一个更适合将大量水蒸气输送到空气中的系统，叶子上有更大的开口，有更大的能力将水分输送到体内。过去对安德莱格的研究是基于这些特征如何决定树木和森林对气候干旱的影响。然而，这项新的研究提出了一个不同的问题:这些特征如何影响干旱本身?

Explaining, Anderegg noted that they have known for a long time that plants can affect the atmosphere and can affect weather. Forests and plants draw water out of the soil and exhale it into the atmosphere, changing the balance of water and heat at the surface of the planet, which fundamentally controls the weather. In some cases, like the Amazon rainforest, all of that water vapor could jumpstart precipitation. Even deforestation can affect weather downwind by leaving regions drier than before.
安德莱格解释说，他们早就知道植物可以影响大气和天气。森林和植物将水从土壤中抽出并排放到大气中，改变了地球表面水和热的平衡，而水和热从根本上控制着地球表面的气候。在一些地区，比如亚马逊热带雨林，所有的水蒸发会造成降水，甚至森林砍伐，使一些地区比以前更干燥。会影响逆风的天气。

Hot and dry regions, as it's been in the convention, tend to have more plants and trees that are adapted to dry conditions. Regardless of the climate, however, some species with water-intensive traits such as oaks in a Mediterranean climate can still exacerbate a drought.
炎热和干燥的地区，就像这些地区一样，往往有更多的植物和树木能够适应干旱的条件。然而，不管气候如何，一些具有耗水特性的物种，如地中海气候中的橡树，仍然能够忍受干旱。

Understanding the relationship between a tree's traits and drought conditions helps climate scientists and local leaders to plan for further drought effects on communities, according to Anderegg. He said that failing to account for this crucial physiology of plants would give them less accurate predictions for what climate change is going to mean for drought in a lot of regions.
安德莱格说，了解树的特性和干旱状况之间的关系，有助于气候科学家和当地领导人为进一步应对干旱对社区的影响制定计划。他说，如果不能解释植物的这一关键生理机能，他们对气候变化对许多地区干旱意味着什么的预测就会不那么准确。

Always in Anderegg's mind is drought and even during the recent wet spring, he noted that just because there is a good water year in the U.S. and Utah this year doesn't get off the hook. It is good to remember that there is going to be a lot more droughts in the future.
在安德雷格的脑海中总是有干旱，即使是在最近的潮湿春天，他也指出，仅仅因为美国和犹他州今年有一个好的水年，是无法摆脱困境。需要记住的是，未来还会有更多的干旱。