Four-Laws-of-Ecology原文中英对照.docx

Four Laws of Ecology 1 In broad outline,there are environmental cycles which govern the behavior of the three great global systems:the air,the water,and the soil.Within each of them live many thousands of different species of living things.Each species is suited to its particular environmental niche,and each,through its life processes,affects the physical and chemical properties of its immediate environment. 1概括来讲,地球的三大系统—空气、水和土壤的行为由环境循环所决定。每个系统中都生活着成千上万个不同物种的生物,每个物种都有与之相适宜的独特的环境生位,并且每一物种,在其整个生命历程中,都影响着它的周边环境的物理和化学特性。 2 Each living species is also linked to many others.These links are bewildering in their variety and marvelous in their intricate detail.An animal,such as a deer,may depend on plants for food;the plants depend on the action of soil bacteria for their nutrients;the bacteria in turn live on the organic wastes dropped by the animal on the soil.At the same time.the deer is food for the mountain lion. Insects may live on the juices of plants or gather pollen from their flowers.Other insects suck blood from animals.Bacteria may live on the internal tissues of animals and plants.Fungi degrade the bodies of dead plants and animals.All this,many times multiplied and organized species by species in intricate,precise relationships,makes up the vast network of life on the earth. 2每个生物物种也与许多其他的物种相联系。1.这些联系的多样性令人迷惑不解,其错综复杂的细节令人惊叹不已。某一动物,如一只鹿,可能依靠植物来获取食物;植物依靠土壤细菌的活动来获取其营养;相应地,细菌以陆地上的动物排泄出来的有机废物为生。同时,鹿是美洲狮的食物。昆虫可能以植物的汁液为生,或者从其花朵里采集花粉。其他的昆虫则吸吮动物的血液。细菌可能以动物和植物的内部组织为生。真菌分解死亡的植物和动物的躯体。所有这一切,由各个物种通过复杂而严密的关系多次繁殖和组织,构成了地球上巨大的生命之网。 ? 3 The science that studies these relationships and the processes linking each living thing to the physical and chemical environment is ecology.It is the science of planetary housekeeping For the environment is,so to speak,the house created on the earth by living things for living things.It is a young science and much of what it teaches has been learned from only small segments of the whole network of life on the earth Ecology has not yet e