每日一翻：Big Apple’s Insects Eat Streets Clean

Rather than cringing at the next beetle or wasp in your way, you might want to thank them—for helping to keep city streets clean.

你不应该畏缩街道附近的甲虫或黄蜂，而或许应该感谢它们帮助保持城市街道清洁。

Researchers from North Carolina State University working in New York City found that hungry urban arthropods play a significant role in the disposal of trash. For example, in a small section of Manhattan called the Broadway/West Street. corridor, insects consume the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs a year that would otherwise be lying in the street. And that’s assuming the bugs stop chowing down in winter.

在纽约工作的来自北卡罗莱纳州立大学的研究员们发现饥饿的城市节肢动物在清理垃圾方面扮演了重要的角色。比如，在曼哈顿百老汇大街或西街走廊的一小部分，昆虫每年清理的垃圾相当于60000个热狗，没有它们，这么多的垃圾将散落在街头。并且这还是假设昆虫在冬天不再进食的情况下的数据。

To assess how much discarded food bugs got rid of, the researchers placed measured amounts of hot dogs, potato chips and cookies at 21 park sites and 24 street medians. Contrary to their prediction, location played an even bigger role in garbage consumption than biodiversity did—insects gobbled up two to three times more food in the street medians than they did in the parks.

为了评估昆虫能清理掉多少丢弃的食物，研究人员在21个公园和24条道路分隔带中放置了大量用来测量的热狗、薯片和饼干。和他们预测相反，位置比生物多样性对垃圾消耗发挥的作用更大，昆虫在道路中间带消耗的食物比在公园消耗的食物多了两到三倍。

The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology. [Elsa Youngsteadt et al, Habitat and species identity, not diversity, predict the extent of refuse consumption by urban arthropods]

研究发表在《全球变化生物学》期刊上。

If all that garbage disposal still does not make you an arthropod admirer, then consider this: by competing with larger pests for resources, insects help keep rat populations down. There’s some food for thought.

如果所有的对垃圾处理的功劳仍不能让你成为一个对节肢动物的爱慕者，那么考虑一下这个问题：通过与大害虫对资源的争夺，这些昆虫可以帮助降低老鼠的数量。这至少是一些对我们精神上的安慰。

—Allie Wilkinson