科學家故意傾瀉石油入湖泊研究生態保護

It's rare that oil is spilled intentionally. But that is what recently happened at a Lake in Ontario, Canada.

故意泄漏石油世所罕見。但最近，在加拿大安大略省的一個湖泊這樣的事情還真在上演。

Earlier in June, bitumen -- a molasses-like product that comes from oil sands -- was drizzled into corrals in an unnamed lake in Ontario's International Institute for Sustainable Development Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA). The reason may seem counterintuitive: to protect future freshwater systems from oil spills.

六月初，瀝青--油砂中提煉出的糖漿似物質，被倒入了安大略國際可持續發展研究院實驗湖區中一個無名湖的圍欄中。原因可能聽起來有些莫名其妙：爲了保護未來可能遭受石油泄漏的淡水系統。

In giant, test tube-like columns of natural lake water, scientists are studying the physical, chemical, biological and toxicological impacts of the diluted form of bitumen (called 'dilbit' for short) on freshwater organisms -- from tiny plankton to frogs and fish.

在這些裝着天然湖水的巨大的管子似的圓柱中，科學家們正在研究稀釋瀝青對淡水生物（從浮游生物到青蛙和魚類）的物理作用、化學作用、生物作用以及毒性作用。

Until now, these kinds of experiments have only been attempted in the laboratory. But lab-based work can't replicate a real-life scenario.

在此之前，這種實驗只在實驗室中做過，但僅僅基於實驗室的研究不能複製真實自然界情景。

This experiment, the first of its kind in Canada, is an opportunity for scientists to answer the kinds of questions that could help protect Canada's lakes in the future: What happens to spilled bitumen in freshwater ecosystems? Where does it go? And how can it be cleaned up in the safest, most effective way?

加拿大這項開創性實驗，讓科學家們有機會弄清楚未來如何有效保護加拿大湖泊的一些問題，比如泄漏的瀝青在淡水生態系統中會引起什麼反應？瀝青去了哪裏？怎麼能最安全、有效地清理乾淨？

That's because clean up procedures for accidentally spilled dilbit are necessarily different than those for conventional crude oil.

因爲清理稀釋瀝青的方法和傳統原油的方法並不相同。

In the weeks leading up to the spill, dozens of students have been labouring at the gravel pit, shovelling sand into bags. They haul their quarry along a muddy, root-filled trail to the lake by lorry and quad bike. Once unloaded, the heavy sandbags are muscled down to the wooden dock to be loaded onto boats.

在傾倒稀釋瀝青之前的幾個星期，許多學生已經在採石場工作了很久。他們鏟沙裝進袋子，然後開着卡車或四輪摩托，沿着樹根纏繞的泥濘道路，把這些沙袋運到湖邊，卸下來之後放在木製碼頭上，然後再搬到船上。

"It's really cheap cross-fit," says University of Manitoba student Sonya Michaleski, here for her third summer, with a laugh.

這是曼尼託巴大學的學生索尼婭·麥考斯基來這裏的第三個夏天，她笑着說，"不花錢就能健身。"

Hauling sandbags is one part of her job. Collecting fish slime and fish vomit for analysis is another.

運沙袋是她工作的一部分。蒐集魚的粘液和嘔吐物做分析是她的另一項工作。

Graduate student Sam Patterson explains his role: drawing water from the enclosures before and after the dilbit spill, then placing the black-dotted eggs of wood frogs in the treated and untreated water to see how the exposure affects their development.

山姆·帕特森是一名研究生，他解釋自己的角色：蒐集稀釋瀝青泄漏前後圍欄內的淡水，然後將樹蛙的黑點卵放入經過處理和未經處理的兩類湖水中，觀察瀝青對樹蛙發育會有什麼影響。

The bulk of the data collection will take place this summer and autumn before the lake freezes up. Subsequent analysis by their team of more than 30 scientists will be shared first in academic journals, but ultimately with the public.

大量數據採集基本會在湖水上凍之前的夏天和秋天完成。30多個科學家組成的團隊其後續分析結果會首先發表在學術期刊上，但最終會與大衆分享。

The IISD-ELA is known for its whole lake experiments. Past work has contaminated some lakes with phosphorus, cadmium, mercury, and synthetic oestrogen, the active ingredient in birth control pills. But never oil.

國際可持續發展研究院實驗湖區以其完全在室外淡水湖作實驗聞名。以前的實驗曾用過磷、鎘、汞、合成雌激素等化學物，以及避孕藥裏的有效成分來污染湖水作研究，但從未試過石油。

The experiment -- nicknamed Boreal, an acronym for Boreal Lake Oil Release Experiment by Additions to Limnocorrals -- won't be a whole lake experiment, either.

實驗的暱稱是“北湖”，是北方湖泊石油泄漏實驗加上湖泊圍欄的簡稱，但不是用整個湖區作實驗。

Small enclosures restrict the oil spill area and four extra containment measures are in place to avoid contaminating the entire body of water, explains Vince Palace, IISD-ELA's head research scientist and project leader for a separate oil spill experiment, the Freshwater Oil Spill Remediation Study (Forest).

文斯·帕雷斯是國際可持續發展研究院實驗湖區的領頭研究員，也是另一個獨立的石油泄漏實驗和淡水石油泄漏整治研究（森林）的項目帶頭人，他解釋道，用圍欄封閉住的部分湖區是一個很小範圍，傾倒的石油只限制在這個小範圍內，而且還採取了另外四種控制措施防止傾倒的石油滲透污染到整個水體。

Still, even this smaller spill area will give scientists a much better idea of how bitumen behaves, and how it affects the environment, than what they are able to mimic indoors in a laboratory.

雖然圈着的泄漏實驗區域很小，但相比實驗室內的模擬環境，科學家們能夠更有效地瞭解瀝青發生了哪些變化，以及如何影響環境。