【TED】The hidden wonders of soil.

Under our feet, there is an unseen world more diverse than all the tropical rainforests combined. Teeming with microbial life and critters, large and small, this hidden world of soil is on every single continent. But most of us know little to nothing about this vast world under our feet. And for most of my life, I was no exception.

在我们脚下， 有着一个比所有热带雨林加起来 更多样化的隐秘世界。 这个世界充满了 大大小小的细菌和微生物， 土壤的隐秘世界 藏在世界的每个角落。 但是大多数人都对我们脚下的 这个广袤世界知之甚少。 在我人生的大部分时间里， 我也是其中一员。

I grew up [a] very curious and adventurous kid. I spent a lot of time climbing trees and falling out of them. And I spent a lot of time getting really dirty. In college, I had to take a class for a science requirement, and I was shocked to discover that being really curious and loving dirt could be a legitimate career. So it took no convincing whatsoever for me to change my major, and that's how I became an ecologist.

我从小就是个好奇心重、 爱冒险的孩子。 我总是在爬树，再摔下来。 我总是弄得灰头土脸。 读大学的时候， 我读了一门科学必修课， 我惊讶地发现， 好奇心重、 喜欢“灰”头“土”脸真的可以是 一份正经工作。 所以我毫不犹豫地转了专业， 然后成为了一名生态学家。

In graduate school, I studied how the loss of a seed disperser, in this case, the winnow ant, affected the plants that they disperse. In my research site, we were discovering that these ants were moving up in elevation to escape a rapidly changing climate. But they were leaving the plants they dispersed behind. So while I came to grad school to study ants, I all of a sudden found myself studying climate change. And because ants nest in soils, I had to learn a lot more about soil.

读研究生的时候， 我研究了种子传播媒介的流失， 此处即盘腹蚁， 会对它们传播的植物 造成什么影响。 在我的研究地点， 我们发现，这种蚁正在 提高栖息地海拔， 躲避快速变化的气候。 但是它们抛下了本该传播的植物。 所以我突然发现， 在我读研、研究蚂蚁的时候， 我其实就是在研究气候变化。 由于蚂蚁在土壤中筑巢， 我还得学习很多关于土壤的知识。

What I couldn't have predicted, as that young, curious, budding ecologist, was that I would spend the next decade of my life thinking about the invisible army of soil microbes and how we can harness their awesome powers to help address climate change.

我没想到作为一名年轻好奇、 初露头角的生态学家， 我竟然要把接下来十年的时间 花在研究这一大堆看不见的 土壤微生物上， 我们又该如何利用它们的力量 帮助解决气候变化。

But before we get to all of that, let's start at the beginning. Soils are considered to be the skin of the Earth. They're only a few meters thick, but they support all agriculture and every single terrestrial biome. Soils help protect our food supply, clean our water, boost our immune systems, and they serve as a source for some critical medicines, including many that have yet to be discovered. Without Earth's exceedingly thin layer of soil and its multitude of organisms, we would not eat, and humanity as we know it may not exist.

在谈这一点之前， 我们还是从头开始吧。 土壤被认为是地球的皮肤。 它只有几米深， 但是支撑着所有农业活动， 维系着所有的陆地生物群系。 土壤保障着我们的食物供应， 清洁我们的水系， 增强我们的免疫系统， 还是一些重要药品的来源， 包括一些尚未被开发的药品。 如果没有地球 这过于纤薄的土壤层 和它丰富的微生物群， 我们就没有东西吃， 我们所知的人类也不会存在。

And soils, like many good things, they take time to develop. They form over hundreds to thousands of years as rocks break down and plants and animals decompose. As soils form, they accumulate and store carbon. In fact, there are billions of tons of carbon stored underground. Two to three times more than what we have in the atmosphere. Plants and soil work in collaboration to drive the single most important transformation of carbon on this planet, photosynthesis. Plants take carbon dioxide from the air, and they combine it with water and sunshine to create sugars. And of course, to grow plants. Plants and their sugars eventually decompose in the soil, feeding the microbes. In fact, most of the carbon that comes in through plants ends up in soil at some point. The carbon cycle continues. Microbes and their carbon eventually break down, and the carbon from the microbes sticks to soil particles, creating what we call soil clumps or aggregates. Because microbial carbon is sticky. So when that microbial carbon ends up in a clump, it's physically protected from further decomposition. And what we know now is that the majority of soil carbon that is sequestered is actually dead microbes or what we call microbial necromass. That necromass can stick around in soils for decades to millennia, especially if we leave soils undisturbed.

土壤和很多好东西一样， 需要时间发展。 形成土壤要花上几百年几千年， 得等到岩石分裂， 动植物腐烂。 土壤形成时， 会积攒、储存碳。 其实有几十亿吨的碳正存在地下， 比大气中的碳多二至三倍。 植物和土壤一起 进行着地球上最重要的 碳转化过程—— 光合作用。 植物从空气中吸收二氧化碳， 加入水和太阳光，生成糖类。 当然，植物也会借此生长。 植物和糖类 最终会腐烂于土壤之中， 滋养微生物。 其实大部分经过植物的碳 迟早会到达土壤。 碳循环持续下去。 微生物和它们体内的碳 最终会分解， 来自微生物的碳 与土壤粒子结合， 产生我们俗称的 “土块”或“碎石土”。 原因是微生物碳的粘性很强。 所以当微生物碳 最终变成土块形态时， 土块就不会再次分解了。 我们现在知道 大部分被吸收的土壤碳 都是死去的微生物， 即“土壤微生物残体”。 这些残体会在土壤中 留存几十年、几千年， 尤其是在我们不去动 这些土壤的情况下。

But over the last 12,000 years, we have lost billions of tons of carbon from our soil as humans converted grasslands and forests into agricultural fields and range lands, building roads and cities. One of the major drivers of that loss was the plow, which, at the time, was a major technological breakthrough that really revolutionized agriculture and altered the trajectory of human history. With each pass of the plow, those plant roots and soil aggregates that we know are really important are broken apart, exposing carbon to decomposition. Today we use more than a third of our land to feed and clothe billions of people on this planet. But we're losing our soils at an alarming rate, and with it, we're losing their fertility. Without that soil, it's going to be a lot harder to feed what is going to be close to 10 billion people on this planet by 2050. That's going to put a lot more pressure on what is already a disappearing and resoundingly underappreciated resource.

但是在过去的 12000 年里， 人们把草地和森林 变成农田和牧场， 修路，建设城市， 导致了土壤中 几十亿吨碳的流失。 流失的主要原因之一是耕地， 耕地在当时是一个 巨大的科技突破， 彻底改变了农业， 也改变了人类历史的轨迹。 每犁一遍地， 这些非常重要的 植物根茎和土块 就会被铲碎，让碳分解。 如今，超过三分之一的土地 被用来为地球上几十亿人 提供食物和衣物。 但是我们正在以惊人的速度 丧失我们的土壤， 意味着我们正在丧失 土壤的生产力。 没有土壤， 要让 2050 年地球上的 100 亿人口有东西吃， 会变得万分困难。 这会让这种 已经在逐渐消失、 明显缺乏重视的资源 压力倍增。

There is no machine that can bring soil back. No technology that can do what thousands of years of rock weathering and biological activity have achieved. But we can build our soils and put more carbon underground with a little help from plants and microbes. Rebuilding soil is going to require us to fundamentally rethink our reliance on technology and chemicals to deliver what soils can do on their own: support life.

没有一台机器可以 重新制造出土壤。 没有一种技术可以 达到岩石风化 和生物活动的千年成果。 但是我们可以借助一些 植物和微生物的力量， 重建土壤，在地下再储存一些碳。 重建土壤要求我们 彻底重新考量我们 对科技和化学物质的依赖， 由此达到土壤靠自己 就能做到的事： 维持生命。

And life in soil is mostly microbial. The Dutch scientist, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, saw tiny organisms he called the "wee beasties," under his microscope about 350 years ago. And with the rapid innovation of molecular and computational tools, we are finally getting a sneak peek at who they are and how they make their way in the world.

土壤中的大部分生命都是微生物。 荷兰科学家安东尼·范·列文虎克 （Antoni van Leeuwenhoek） 在大约 350 年前 通过显微镜观察到了 一些他称之为 “小野兽”的微小生物。 随着分子和计算工具的飞速发展， 我们终于可以一见它们的真容， 它们如何在世界里生存。

Here's the thing. A teaspoon of soil holds billions of organisms, things like bacteria, fungi, protists and archaea. These microbes are the movers and shakers of nature's carbon cycle. They drive really important processes in soil, they take organic matter and convert it into complex carbon molecules. And having more carbon in soil is transformative. As carbon accumulates, agricultural fields can hold on to more water and more nutrients, building resilience that helps them deal with the ups and downs of a changing climate. That resilience means plants can grow more consistently, even when the weather is fickle. And the awesome thing is carbon-rich soils help buffer us against what is an uncertain climate future. The trick is to really rethink how we do agriculture.

是这样的。 一小勺土壤包含了 几十亿个有机体， 比如细菌、真菌、 原生生物和古生菌。 这些微生物左右着 自然界的碳循环。 它们会促进土壤中的重要进程， 将有机物质 转化为复合碳分子。 土壤保有更多的碳 会带来巨大改变。 随着碳的累积， 农田可以容纳 更多的水和营养， 帮助农田建立应对 气候变化的抗风险能力。 这种抗风险能力意味着 即使是在变化无常的天气条件下， 植物也可以不受影响地生长。 很棒的一点是 碳含量高的土壤 可以给我们应对未来 未知的气候提供缓冲。 诀窍就在于重新考虑 农耕的方式。

So there is the good news,

which is there are some tried and true ways

that we can get more carbon in our soils and build our soils back. We can plow less, and we can make sure that we have roots in the ground year round, feeding the microbes and powering that microbial engine humming under our feet. And we can do this.

有个好消息， 我们确实尝试过一些方式 将更多的碳送入土壤， 重建土壤。 我们可以少耕田， 确保全年地里都有植物根茎， 让微生物有东西吃， 发动我们脚下的 这台微生物“机器”。 我们能做到。

The other thing is, diversity is the key ingredient in this recipe. Diverse plant communities support diverse microbial communities that can transform and store more carbon. Diversity is good for soils, and it's good for climate mitigation. Just like we need every microbe, we need every farmer and rancher, every climate solution and every solver.

另外关键的一点是多样性。 多样的植物种群支撑着 多样的微生物种群， 它们可以转化碳、储存碳。 多样性对土壤很有益， 对缓解气候问题也很有益。 就如同我们需要每一种微生物， 我们也需要每一位农民、 每一位牧场主、 每一个气候解决方案 和每一位问题解决者。

So ... Healthy, carbon-rich soils matter today more than ever. The other great thing about carbon-rich soils is they help farmers have more consistent agricultural operations and more sustainable ones that can withstand the ups and downs of a changing climate. That's a huge win for the people that grow our food, it’s a win for climate, and it’s a win for us consumers. So how do we do it?

所以…… 富含碳的健康土壤 对我们的当下至关重要。 碳含量高的土壤还有一个好处， 它可以让农民的农业操作更一致、 更可持续， 能够适应气候变化 带来的剧烈影响。 对于为我们种植食物的人来说， 这可是件大好事， 对于气候、消费者来说 都是大好事。 我们该怎么做呢？

Well, there are three simple things we can do. Number one, we have to protect our soils and the carbon they already hold. Number two, we can get more carbon underground by growing diverse, climate-adapted crops. And number three, we can let the microbes do their thing. Leave them alone by leaving the soil undisturbed. It sounds simple, and that's because it kind of is. But there are some questions that are left to be answered, and there's a lot of room for us to innovate. We need to track and measure our climate progress. We need to develop more climate-resilient crop varieties that can grow deeper roots and pump carbon underground deeper. And we need to rethink our economic models and agriculture and help support and incentivize these carbon-sequestering agricultural practices. So lots of room for innovation, lots of room for research. Good news for us scientists.

我们能做的有三件事。 第一，我们必须保护 我们的土壤和其中的碳。 第二，我们可以通过种植 更多样、更耐气候变化的作物， 将更多的碳送入地下。 第三，我们得让微生物 自由发挥。 不要去动土壤， 让微生物做该做的事。 听起来很简单， 确实也不难。 但还是有一些未被回答的问题 和一些创新的空间。 我们得追踪、衡量 气候变化进程。 我们得研发出更适应气候变化的 作物品种， 根茎更长， 将碳送入更深的地底。 我们得重新调整 我们的经济模式和农业， 支持、鼓励 农业碳汇行为。 很多创新的空间， 很多研究的空间。 对科学家来说是个好消息。

But we don't have time to waste. Climate change is here and it's affecting all of us, whether we know it or not. It's affecting every single ecosystem, including agriculture. Soils are the literal foundation of life on this planet, the reason that we can eat and the climate solution just waiting to be unlocked. So let's build back our soils, help our planet by looking down to the ground.

但是我们不能再浪费时间了。 无论我们是否意识到了，气候变化 迫在眉睫，影响着我们每一个人。 影响着每一个生态系统， 包括农业。 土壤是地球生命的坚实基础， 是我们食物的来源， 也是静待我们启用的 气候解决方案。 让我们重建土壤， 脚踏“实地”拯救我们的地球。

Thank you.

谢谢。