科学美国人60秒:厄尔尼诺增加毒蛇袭击人类事件

　　科学美国人60秒中文翻译：

　　Parts of the planet warm and cool during El Nino and La Nina. 在经历拉尼娜及厄尔尼诺期间，地球上的部分地区会出现时冷时热的现象。

　　And infectious diseases also wax and wane in step with the climate cycle. 而且传染性疾病也会随着气候循环呈现增强及减弱的趋势。

　　Take malaria—shown to spike in northern Venezuela during cool, La Nina conditions. 比如疟疾，在拉尼娜期间，委内瑞拉北部的疟疾发病率会呈现上升趋势。

　　Or flu pandemics, which often follow months after La Nina sets in. 还有流感疫情，通常会在拉尼娜出现几个月后到来。

　　Now researchers have linked another public health risk to El Nino climate cycling: 现在研究者们已将另外一种危及公共健康的危险因素同厄尔尼诺气候联系到一起：

　　poisonous viper bites. 那就是毒蛇咬伤事件。

　　Their study area was Costa Rica—where health centers keep rigorous records on snakebites. 他们关注的地区是哥斯达黎加—这里的健康中心对毒蛇咬伤事件进行了详细的调查研究。

　　They compared nine years of those snakebite records—including some 6,500 bites—to climate data over the same period. 研究者们将近9年6500起毒蛇咬伤事件同同时期的气候数据进行比较。

　　And they found that snakebites were two to three times as prevalent in the hottest and coldest years of the El Nino climate cycle. 结果研究人员发现在厄尔尼诺气候的最热及最冷时期，毒蛇咬伤事件的概率要高出2至3倍。

　　Sounds counter intuitive—you might expect the climate extremes to have opposite effects. 可能听上去很反常—你也许会认为这样的极端气候条件应该会产生截然不同的结果。

　　But the researchers say in hot, dry years, plant productivity peaks, driving an increase in the number of rodents—aka snake food, potentially increasing the number of snakes. 但是研究人员表示在一年中最为炎热的时期，植物的生长速度处于最高值，这使得啮齿类动物的数量增加—而蛇类又以啮齿类动物为食，这样潜在蛇类的数量也就随之增加。

　　And snakes tend to move around more in hot, dry weather—increasing chances they'll encounter—and attack—an unlucky farmer. 而蛇又喜欢在炎热干燥的天气下四处爬行，进而它们袭击倒霉农夫的几率大大增加。

　　In cold, wet years, on the other hand, prey numbers plummet 反观另一方面，在一年当中寒冷潮湿的时期，猎物数量降低

　　forcing snakes to travel beyond their usual slithering grounds to eat—again increasing chances of an unlucky meeting. 使得蛇类通常会前往自身活动范围外觅食—这再次增加了人类遇袭的几率。

　　The study is in the journal Science Advances. 这项研究结果已经在《科学进步》杂志上发表。

　　The researchers also found two more variables that correlate strongly with Costa Ricans' odds of being bit: 研究者们也发现还有两个可变因素同哥斯达黎加人民被蛇袭击有着很强的联系：

　　poverty and destitute housing. 那就是贫困及房屋老旧。

　　A reminder that, when it comes to dangers from environmental disruption, it's often the least fortunate who are at the greatest risk. 值得注意的是环境所造成的危险通常是最小的。

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