Humans do a lot of different things to the environment, and there aren’t many natural processes – aside from an asteroid impact or the like – that can rival the scale of change brought on by human activity.
人類對環境做了很多不同的事情。除了小行星撞擊或諸如此類之外，能與人類活動帶來之變化規模，相匹敵的自然過程並不多。
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to three experts who study different ways that people are affecting how plants and animals evolve – and how humanity has become the single biggest driver of evolutionary changes on Earth.
在“對話周刊”播客(podcast：iPod及broadcast的混成詞，是一種數位媒體。指一系列的音訊、影片、在數位無線電(digital radio)或文字以列表形式經網際網路發佈，聽眾可下載或串流當中的檔案以欣賞)的這一集中，我們與三位研究人類正如何影響植物及動物演化之不同方式的專家談論。也就是，人類為何已經成為地球上，進化論上之變化的單一最大驅動者。
The war in Ukraine has raised the specter of nuclear disaster – either through the intentional use of weapons or the accidental meltdown of a nuclear power plant – once again. Ukraine, unfortunately, is no stranger to the risks of splitting atoms.
於烏克蘭的戰爭已經引發核災難的陰影。不是經由故意使用此種武器，就是核電廠意外熔毀。不幸的是，烏克蘭對分裂原子的風險並不陌生。
The 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl power plant was the biggest nuclear accident in history, and its legacy is seen in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. People essentially abandoned the area for decades, leaving nature to reclaim the land around Chernobyl.
1986年(發生於蘇聯烏克蘭蘇維埃社會主義共和國之)車諾比核電廠的熔毀，是歷史上最大的核事故，其遺留物在車諾比禁區內可見。幾十年來，人們基本上放棄了該地區，讓大自然去改造車諾比周邊的土地。
Germán Orizaola is a biologist at the University of Oviedo in Spain who studies frogs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. One of the species Orizaola was looking for is called the eastern tree frog and is usually bright green.
於車諾比禁區研究青蛙的Germán Orizaola，是西班牙奧維耶多大學的一名生物學家。Orizaola在尋找的物種之一，被稱為東方樹蛙，通常是鮮綠色。
“I was alone in the ponds, listening to those males calling, and I didn’t find any. I wasn’t able to detect one until I realized that that green frog that I was looking for wasn’t green. It was black. Absolutely black,” he says.
他宣稱：「我獨自在諸多池塘中，傾聽那些雄樹蛙叫聲，不過沒有任何發現。我無法發現，直到意識到，我要找的那隻綠色樹蛙不是綠色。它是黑色，絕對黑。」
Other than turning from green to black, the frogs were completely healthy. But the decades of exposure to radiation left over from the accident had led to a dramatic and rapid evolutionary change in the frogs – a change entirely driven by human actions.
除了從綠色變黑色外，此些樹蛙是完全健康的。不過，事故遺留下之數十年的輻射曝露，在此些樹蛙中，已經導致顯著且迅速之演化上的變化。這是一種完全由人類行為驅動的變化。
As Orizaolo explained, “As soon as humans are in the environment, the amount of pressure we put on the environment – radiation, pesticides, noise or changes in temperature – are so extreme and so fast that they also induce extremely fast evolutionary responses.”
如同Orizaolo解釋的那樣，「一旦人類進入環境中，咱們對環境施加的壓力數量(輻射、殺蟲劑、噪音或溫度上的變化)，如此極端及如此快速，以至於它們也會引發極度快速之演化上的諸多反應。」
Andrew Whitehead, an environmental toxicologist at the University of California, Davis in the U.S. is intimately familiar with another striking example of how humans can drive rapid evolution in animals. In particular, he looks at a little fish called the killifish.
美國加州大學戴維斯分校的環境毒物學家，Andrew Whitehead非常熟悉，人類如何驅動於動物中迅速演化之另一個引人注目的例子。特別是，他檢視一種，被稱為鱂魚的小魚。
“There are populations living in these radically human-altered estuaries, and these are environments that should be lethal to them,” he explains. Certain estuaries in the U.S. are full of chemical pollution, yet the fish are thriving. As Whitehead says, “Killifish from those sites are resistant to up to 8,000 times the normally lethal concentration of these chemicals.”
他解釋：「有些種群生活於，人類徹底改變的諸多河口，而此些對它們來說，應該是致命的環境。」於美國的某些河口充滿化學污染，魚類卻是欣欣向榮的。如同Whitehead陳述：「來自那些地點的鱂魚，對此些化學物質之正常致死濃度，具高達8千倍的抵抗力。」
Whitehead explained that the killifish, due to equal parts luck and a large bank of genetic diversity thanks to huge population numbers, were able to quickly adapt to the polluted estuaries. Given the choice of evolve or die, the fish evolved.
Whitehead解釋，鱂魚，由於同等的幸運及幸虧巨大種群數的一大堆遺傳多樣性，鱂魚能夠迅速適應此些遭污染的河口。被給予演化或死亡的選擇，這種魚演化了。
But, as Whitehead noted, “A lot of people respond to the killifish story as this sort of uplifting story where evolution wins out against all odds. But I think that this is more appropriately interpreted as a cautionary story.”
不過，如同Whitehead特別提及的那樣：「許多人對鱂魚故事的反應，如同儘管有極大困難，這類演化戰勝了之令人振奮的故事。不過我認為，解釋為一種警示故事，這是更為適當的。」
While some species can adapt to the change brought on by modern society, most can’t.
儘管有些物種能適應，由現代社會帶來的變化。不過，大多數無法。
Marc Johnson, a biologist at the University of Toronto in Canada, is one of the world’s leading researchers studying the relationship between human actions – urbanization in particular – and the evolution of plants, animals and fungi.
加拿大多倫多大學的生物學家，Marc Johnson是研究人類行為(特別是在都市化上)與植物、動物及真菌演化之間關係的世界首要研究人員之一。
“Life on Earth has never experienced environments like cities in its 4 billion year history,” says Johnson. “It really seems that today, the major driver of evolution is human. And we do not understand this nearly well enough.”
Johnson宣稱：「地球上的生命，在其40億年的歷史中，從未經歷過像城市這樣的環境。實際上，目前看起來，演化的主要驅動者是人類。而我們對此不理解，近乎至極。
No one can change how evolution works, but one thing people can control is how we build our cities, deal with our waste or produce our power. Researchers like Johnson hope that figuring out how evolution and human actions interact will help inform decisions that can give plants and animals a better chance at adapting to a changing world.
無人能改變演化如何運作。不過，人們能控制的一件事，是我們如何建造城市、處理廢物或產生電力。像Johnson的研究人員們希望，理解演化與人類行為如何相互作用，將有助於引導，能賦予植物及動物，在適應不斷變化的世界中，有更好機會的決策。
網址：https://theconversation.com/from-radiation-to-water-pollution-to-cities-humans-are-now-a-driver-of-evolution-in-the-natural-world-podcast-193375
翻譯：許東榮
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