地球正处于第六次物种大灭绝中.

　　The loss and decline of animals around the world — caused by habitat loss and global climate disruption — mean we're in the midst of a sixth "mass extinction" of life on Earth, according to several studies out Thursday in the journal Science.

　　根据科学杂志的几个研究表明，由于栖息地破坏和全球气候图片导致的全球范围内的动物灭绝和减少，意味着我们正身处地球历史上的第六次”大型物种灭绝“

　　One study found that although human population has doubled in the past 35 years, the number of invertebrate animals – such as beetles, butterflies, spiders and worms – has decreased by 45% during that same period.

　　一项研究发现，尽管全球人口数量在过去35年间大幅增长，但无脊椎动物的数量同期减少了45%。无脊椎动物包括甲虫、蝴蝶、蜘蛛和蠕虫等。

　　"We were shocked to find similar losses in invertebrates as with larger animals, as we previously thought invertebrates to be more resilient." said Ben Collen of the U.K.'s University College London, one of the study authors.

　　该研究作者之一、英国伦敦大学学院的本·科伦说：“我们发现无脊椎动物和较大型动物的消失情况类似，这令我们感到震惊。因为之前我们以为，无脊椎动物的适应性更强。”

　　Although big, photogenic species, such as tigers, rhinos and pandas, get the bulk of the attention, researchers say it's clear that even the disappearance of the tiniest beetle can significantly change the various ecosystems on which humans depend.

　　尽管比如老虎、犀牛和大熊猫等大型物种获得了人们的大部分关注，但是研究人员说，显然即使是最微小的甲虫的消失也可能显著改变人类赖以生存的多样性生态系统。

　　"We tend to think about extinction as loss of a species from the face of Earth, and that's very important, but there's a loss of critical ecosystem functioning in which animals play a central role that we need to pay attention to as well," said lead author Rodolfo Dirzo of Stanford University.

　　该研究的第一作者、斯坦福大学的鲁道夫·德尔佐说：“我们往往将灭绝视为一个物种从地球表面消失，这很重要，但关键的生态系统功能也在消失，这也是我们需要注意的。在生态系统功能中，动物发挥着核心作用。”

　　"Habitat destruction will facilitate hunting and poaching, and species will have difficulty in finding ruge given land use change and climatic disruption," added Dirzo.

　　栖息地的破坏促进了狩猎和盗猎，由于土地使用的变化和气候的突变导致午中们很难找到避难所。

　　The study reported that around 322 species have gone extinct over the last five centuries.

　　研究表明在过去的500年里，大约有322种物种已经灭绝。

　　Scientists have coined the phrase "anthropocene daunation" — meaning human-caused animal decline — to describe this apparent mass extinction.

　　科学家为形容这一明显的大灭绝而创造了一个短语——“人类世动物灭绝”，意思是人类导致的动物减少。

　　Five times in the history of the Earth, a huge percentage of the planet's life has been wiped out in what are called mass extinctions, typically from collisions with giant meteors.

　　地球上大部分生物在所谓的大灭绝中消失的情况，历史上曾发生过五次，典型的大灭绝是由地球与大型流星相撞导致的。

　　About 66 million years ago, one well-known extinction killed off the dinosaurs, along with three out of four species on Earth. About 252 million years ago, the "Great Dying" snuffed out about 90% of the world's species.

　　在约6600万年前，一次广为人知的灭绝导致恐龙全部被消灭，另外地球上还有四分之三的物种也都随之消失。在约2.52亿年前，“大灭绝”(Great Dying)消灭了全世界约90%的物种。

　　What's new about this extinction is "that the underlying driving force for this is not a meteorite or a mega-volcanic eruption; it is one species - homo sapiens," said Dirzo.

　　Dirzo称：本次灭绝的不同之处在于推动力既不是陨星，也不是大型的火山喷发，而是由于一个物种-人类。

　　Overall, scientists estimate that due to all of the past extinctions, about nine out of 10 of all life-forms that have existed on our planet are extinct.

　　科学家估计，总体而言，在我们的地球上曾存在过的所有生命形式中，约有十分之九绝种了。

　　Another article in this week's Science, led by Philip Seddon of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, details the way we can reduce this mass extinction by reintroducing animals to wild populations and recolonizing entire populations — such as giant tortoises — to areas in which they've gone extinct.

　　本周出版的《科学》周刊上还有一篇文章详细讲述了我们可以减少这种大灭绝的办法，即通过将动物引入野生群体，并把某些物种群体，比如巨型陆龟，再次移回该物种已经灭绝的地区。这项研究由位于新西兰达尼丁的奥塔戈大学的菲利普·塞登主持。

　　That study found that "some substantial progress in reversing daunation is being achieved through the intentional movement of animals to restore populations."

　　该研究发现，通过有意转移动物以重新恢复物种群体，在扭转动物灭绝趋势方面取得了一些实质性进展。

　　A third report in the journal finds that animals such as gibbons, orangutans and various types of foxes, bears and rhinoceroses have been steadily disappearing from large, protected areas of land around the world.

　　本期《科学》周刊上的第三份报告发现，在世界各地的大型陆地保护区，一些动物一直在逐渐消失，比如长臂猿、猩猩以及各种狐狸、熊和犀牛。

　　The papers in this week's Science continue research into the mass extinction; a study this year in Science found that species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did bore humans appeared.

　　本周出版的《科学》周刊上的论文延续了对大灭绝的研究;今年，《科学》周刊上的一项研究发现，动植物物种当前的灭绝速度至少是人类出现之前的1000倍。

　　Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a non-profit science society based in Washington.

　　《科学》周刊由非营利性的美国科学促进会出版，该协会的总部设在华盛顿。