【推荐1】

Crab traps (蟹笼) work like this: crabs crawl in, but they don’t crawl out.     1     However, when traps get lost at sea, they become a threat to all sorts of animals.

With no one there to get them back, the traps continue to fish, says a researcher. “Marine life gets into the trap. Eventually, they can’t eat so they die, and then other marine life becomes attracted to it. They get into the trap, and they die.     2    ”

Abandoned crab traps harm wildlife and affect other fishers, especially shrimpers (捕虾者). Large and heavy crab traps get caught in shrimping nets, tearing them open or blocking them from catching shrimp. Helpless shrimpers, with nowhere to put the smelly traps, generally just throw them back, continuing the cycle.

But a group in Mississippi has found a solution:     3     In just three years, the program has removed almost 3,000 crab traps from Mississippi waters. Crab traps are marked, and those that are still in good condition are returned to their owners, while traps that are too broken down are recycled.

    4     Wildlife is safer, the water is cleaner and there’s been a clear trend that shrimpers are encountering fewer traps.

Chloé Dubois, head of a nonprofit focused on marine debris (废弃物), calls it “a great success story.” Dubois says there have been programs historically very successful at recycling waste products at the end of their life cycle. But in the ghost fishing and marine debris field, she says, “     5     There aren’t many examples of programs like this.”

【推荐2】Wildlife conservation is the preservation and protection of animals, plants, and their habitats. By conserving wildlife, we’re ensuring that future generations can enjoy our natural world and the unbelievable species that live within it. To help protect wildlife, it’s important to understand how species interact within their ecosystems, and how they are affected by environmental and human influences.

Plants and animals have life events that seemingly occur like clockwork every year. Birds can migrate, mammals may hibernate (冬眠), flowers bloom, and leaves change colors. The study of how the biological world times these natural events is called phenology. Scientists now understand that plants and animals are strongly influenced by their local climate (long-term weather patterns). Climate is affected by non-biological factors — temperature, precipitation (降水), and available sunlight. Species use the predictable yearly changes in the climate to determine when they start natural events such as breeding or flowering.

Climate change is slowly increasing average annual temperatures. One of the most noticeable ways that climate change is influencing wildlife is by changing the timing of natural events. With warmer temperatures, flowering plants are blooming earlier in the year and migratory birds are returning from their wintering grounds earlier in the spring. Phenology is an important subject for conservationists to study because it helps us understand the patterns of specific species and overall ecosystem health. Every species has an effect on those in its food chain and community, and the timing of one species’ phenological events can be very important to the survival of another species.