◎李信漢

Trees, crucial absorbers of climate-harming carbon dioxide gas, may finally be balking at an ever-earlier spring season brought on by global warming, researchers said Wednesday.

研究人員週三說，傷害環境的二氧化碳氣體之重要吸收器—樹木，最終可能受到全球暖化造成春天越來越早的情況所影響，而阻礙它的生長。

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Over the past several decades, trees across central Europe have been steadily sprouting their spring leaves earlier in response to warmer temperatures, they said.

研究者們說，過去數十年來，橫跨中歐境內的樹群不斷提早萌生春天枝芽，以回應越來越暖和的氣溫。

As a result, forests absorbed more carbon dioxide in a longer growing season -- a boon that has been worked into global warming projections.

因此，森林在較長的生長季吸收更多的二氧化碳—這在對抗全球化的計畫中是件好事。

But a study published in the science journal Nature said trees have slowed their pace of seasonal advance -- raising fears it may stop altogether.

但一項發表於科學期刊《自然》的研究說，樹群已放慢它們季節前變化的速度—這引起研究人員擔心，樹群可能集體停止生長。

The slowdown "suggests a current and possible future weakening of forests’ carbon uptake due to the declining temperature sensitivity of （trees）," lead author Yongshuo Fu of Peking University in Beijing told AFP.

樹群季節變化的速度變慢，「暗示現在和未來樹群吸收碳的能力可能衰退，因為樹群對溫度的敏感性下降。」第一作者、北京大學的付永碩在北京告訴法新社。

For the study, an international team crunched decades of data drawn from seven common types of trees like beech, silver birch and horse chestnut at 1,245 sites in the wild ranging from Denmark to Bosnia. （AFP）

為了這項研究，一個國際研究團隊檢視數十年的研究資料，這些資料來自7種常見的樹種，像是山毛櫸、白樺樹和七葉樹，這些樹群廣泛分布在丹麥到波士尼亞的1245處荒野。（法新社）

新聞辭典

balk：動詞，阻止，阻礙。例句：The public balked at the President’s new tax plan.（公民大眾阻止總統的新稅賦計畫。）

uptake：動詞，吸收，攝取。例句：The doctor advised me to reduce the salt uptake.（醫生建議我減少鹽的攝取。）

stem：動詞，阻止。例句：The doctor stemmed the flow of blood by applying pressure to the wound.（醫生用壓住傷口的方式阻止血液流出。）

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