Nature · 人与自然 / 生态 / 生物多样性 / 科普
消失的"嗡嗡声"：昆虫数量为何以惊人速度衰退
A decades-long study of flying insects suggests the planet's pollinators are vanishing — yet freshwater insects and a wave of restoration hint that decline is not destiny
中文导读
夏日田野边嗡嗡作响的昆虫最容易被忽视，然而它们的悄然消失，可能是我们这个时代最沉重的生态叙事。德国克雷菲尔德昆虫学会在 63 个自然保护区内布设马来氏网，历经 27 年监测发现：飞行昆虫的生物量暴跌了约 76%——而且这发生在本该"原始纯净"的保护区里。本文通过回顾 2017 年奠基性研究、2019 年《生物保护》的荟萃分析与 2020 年《科学》的全球综述，剖析栖息地破碎化、杀虫剂与气候变暖三大机制，揭示传粉昆虫衰退如何沿着食物网层层传导、威胁全球粮食安全，同时也点出一个反直觉的事实：淡水昆虫数量其实在回升，说明衰退并非不可逆转。文章最终落点在于：记录自家花园的昆虫、留一片不修剪的草坪，每个普通人都能为留住那阵"嗡嗡声"出一份力。
一、原文精读
鼠标悬停在带 蓝色虚线下划线 的生词上，即可查看词性和释义。
🔊 英音朗读 · British English
由英音语音合成（en-GB）朗读全文原文，共 9 段。播放时原文会随进度逐句高亮，建议先盲听抓大意，再对照下方原文跟读，留意重音、连读与停顿。
【1】Few creatures are easier to overlook than the insects that hum at the edges of a summer field, yet their quiet disappearance may be the most consequential ecological story of our age. A growing body of research suggests that the planet's insects, whose services underpin nearly everything that blooms and flies, are vanishing at a rate that scientists struggle to chart.
【2】The most cited evidence comes from a study led by entomologists working with the Krefeld Society in Germany, who set malaise traps — tent-like nets that capture flying insects — across 63 protected nature reserves. Between 1989 and 2016, the total biomass of flying insects caught in those traps plummeted by roughly 76 percent, a collapse researchers described as "alarming" precisely because it occurred inside supposedly pristine habitats.
【3】That finding, published in 2017, prompted a global reassessment. A subsequent meta-analysis of 73 long-term studies, appearing in the journal Biological Conservation, concluded that more than 40 percent of insect species are declining and one third are threatened with extinction — a rate of loss some eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.
【4】The mechanisms behind the decline are neither mysterious nor mutually exclusive. Habitat fragmentation driven by agricultural intensification strips insects of the wildflowers and hedgerows on which they depend, while the widespread use of insecticides — notably neonicotinoids — poisons the very pollinators farmers rely on to produce crops, and a warming climate disrupts the delicate timing between insects and the plants they visit.
【5】The consequences ripple far beyond the insects themselves. Roughly three quarters of the world's flowering plants and about a third of its food crops depend, at least partly, on animal pollination; as pollinator numbers fall, so too does the security of the harvests that feed billions. Birds and other aerial insectivores, which keep pest populations in check, have declined in lockstep with their prey — a signal that entire food webs are thinning.
【6】Yet the picture is more nuanced than the alarming headlines suggest, and here the science offers a counterintuitive twist. A meta-analysis of 166 long-term surveys published in Science in 2020 found that, while terrestrial insects were shrinking by about 0.92 percent a year, freshwater insects were actually increasing by 1.08 percent — a divergence that some researchers attribute to cleaner rivers and the absence, in water, of the pesticides that saturate farmland.
【7】Scientists caution against treating "insect apocalypse" as a settled verdict, noting that the data remain heavily biased toward Europe and North America, where monitoring has been most systematic. The tropics, which harbour the great majority of insect diversity, remain largely uncharted — a gap that makes any confident global estimate premature.
【8】Still, the researchers insist, the mounting evidence points clearly enough in one direction to warrant action rather than despair. Restoration efforts — from planting native wildflower strips along field margins to phasing out the most harmful insecticides — have repeatedly shown that insect populations can rebound once the pressures that drove them down are eased.
【9】For ordinary people, the message is at once humbling and empowering. Citizen science projects that invite residents to catalogue the insects in their own gardens have begun to fill the data void, while the simple act of leaving a corner of lawn unmown can create a refuge for pollinators — the hum of a meadow, it turns out, is not a backdrop to human life but a measure of its health.
原文出处：本文根据德国克雷菲尔德昆虫学会（Krefeld Society）发表于《PLOS ONE》的长时段监测研究（2017），《Biological Conservation》的昆虫衰退全球综述（2019，Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys），《Science》的 166 项长时段调查荟萃分析（2020，van Klink 等），及 The Guardian / National Geographic 相关报道综合整理改写，供学习使用。
三、长难句分析（三步拆解法）
The most cited evidence comes from a study led by entomologists working with the Krefeld Society in Germany, who set malaise traps — tent-like nets that capture flying insects — across 63 protected nature reserves.
主干：The most cited evidence comes from a study（主语 + comes from + 宾语）
过去分词作后置定语：led by entomologists working with the Krefeld Society（修饰 a study）
非限制性定语从句：who set malaise traps ... across 63 protected nature reserves（who 指代 entomologists）
插入语（同位语补充说明）：tent-like nets that capture flying insects（破折号引出，解释 malaise traps；that 引导定语从句修饰 nets）
考点：过去分词 / 现在分词作后置定语；非限制性定语从句；同位语
译文：被引用最多的证据来自一项由德国克雷菲尔德昆虫学会的昆虫学家主导的研究——他们在 63 个自然保护区里布设了马来氏网（一种捕捉飞行昆虫的帐篷状网子）。
Habitat fragmentation driven by agricultural intensification strips insects of the wildflowers and hedgerows on which they depend, while the widespread use of insecticides — notably neonicotinoids — poisons the very pollinators farmers rely on to produce crops.
并列结构：Habitat fragmentation ... strips insects of ... , while the widespread use ... poisons the very pollinators ...（while 连接两个并列分句，表对比）
过去分词作后置定语：driven by agricultural intensification（修饰 fragmentation）
定语从句：on which they depend（介词 + which，修饰 wildflowers and hedgerows）；farmers rely on（省略 that 的定语从句，修饰 pollinators）
插入语：notably neonicotinoids（举例说明 insecticides）
考点："介词 + which" 定语从句；省略关系代词 that；strip sb of sth 搭配；while 并列对比
译文：由农业集约化驱动的栖息地破碎化，剥夺了昆虫赖以生存的野花和树篱；而杀虫剂（尤其是新烟碱类）的广泛使用，则毒害了农民赖以生产作物的传粉者。
A meta-analysis of 166 long-term surveys published in Science in 2020 found that, while terrestrial insects were shrinking by about 0.92 percent a year, freshwater insects were actually increasing by 1.08 percent — a divergence that some researchers attribute to cleaner rivers and the absence, in water, of the pesticides that saturate farmland.
主干：A meta-analysis ... found that ...（主语 + found + that 宾语从句）
过去分词作后置定语：published in Science in 2020（修饰 surveys）
宾语从句（含让步状语从句）：while terrestrial insects were shrinking ..., freshwater insects were actually increasing ...（while 引导让步状语从句，表对比）
同位语 + 定语从句：a divergence that some researchers attribute to ...（破折号引出，解释前面主句；that 定语从句修饰 divergence；其中 the pesticides that saturate farmland 又嵌套一层定语从句）
考点：宾语从句；while 让步/对比；同位语；attribute A to B；多层定语从句嵌套
译文：2020 年发表在《科学》上、整合了 166 项长期调查的一项荟萃分析发现：虽然陆生昆虫正以每年约 0.92% 的速度减少，淡水昆虫却以 1.08% 的速度增加——这一分化，一些研究者将其归因于河流变得更干净，以及水中不存在那些浸透农田的杀虫剂。
As pollinator numbers fall, so too does the security of the harvests that feed billions.
时间/条件状语从句：As pollinator numbers fall（As 引导，表"随着……"）
主句（部分倒装）：so too does the security of the harvests（so + 助动词 does + 主语，表"……也一样"）
定语从句：that feed billions（修饰 harvests）
考点：as 引导状语从句；so 引导的部分倒装（so + 助动词/情态动词 + 主语）；定语从句
译文：随着传粉者数量下降，养活数十亿人口的收成安全也随之下降。
Citizen science projects that invite residents to catalogue the insects in their own gardens have begun to fill the data void, while the simple act of leaving a corner of lawn unmown can create a refuge for pollinators — the hum of a meadow, it turns out, is not a backdrop to human life but a measure of its health.
主干（并列）：Citizen science projects ... have begun to fill the data void, while the simple act ... can create a refuge（while 连接两个并列分句）
定语从句：that invite residents to catalogue the insects（修饰 projects）
动名词短语作后置定语：leaving a corner of lawn unmown（修饰 the simple act）
插入语 + 同位语总结：the hum of a meadow, it turns out, is not ... but a measure of its health（破折号引出总结；it turns out 为插入语；not A but B 结构）
考点：定语从句；动名词短语作后置定语；插入语；not ... but ... 结构
译文：邀请居民为自家花园昆虫编目的公民科学项目，已开始填补数据空白；而给草坪留出一角不修剪这一简单举动，就能为传粉者创造庇护所——事实证明，草甸的嗡嗡声并非人类生活的背景音，而是衡量其健康的一把尺子。
四、全文大意
夏日田野边嗡嗡作响的昆虫最容易被忽视，但它们的悄然消失，正成为这个时代最沉重的生态叙事。被引用最多的证据来自德国克雷菲尔德昆虫学会的一项研究：昆虫学家在 63 个自然保护区内布设马来氏网，历经 1989 年至 2016 年的 27 年监测，发现飞行昆虫的生物量暴跌约 76%——而这一"令人警醒"的崩溃恰恰发生在本该原始纯净的保护区里。这一 2017 年发表的研究引发了全球性的重新评估：2019 年发表在《生物保护》上、整合 73 项长期研究的荟萃分析指出，超过四成的昆虫物种正在减少，三分之一濒临灭绝，其灭绝速度大约是哺乳动物、鸟类和爬行动物的八倍。衰退的机制并不神秘，也并非彼此排斥：农业集约化导致的栖息地破碎化，剥夺了昆虫赖以生存的野花与树篱；新烟碱类杀虫剂的广泛使用毒害了传粉者；气候变暖则打乱了昆虫与植物之间的节律。后果沿着食物网层层传导——全球约四分之三的开花植物和三分之一的粮食作物至少部分依赖动物授粉，传粉者减少直接动摇粮食安全；以昆虫为食的鸟类等"食虫鸟"也与其猎物同步减少。然而真实图景比耸人听闻的标题更复杂：2020 年《科学》上整合 166 项长期调查的荟萃分析揭示了一个反直觉的事实——陆生昆虫以每年约 0.92% 的速度减少，淡水昆虫却以 1.08% 的速度增加，研究者将其归因于河流变清与水中无杀虫剂。科学家提醒，"昆虫末日"并非定论，因为现有数据严重偏向监测最系统的欧美地区，容纳绝大多数昆虫多样性的热带仍几乎未被摸清。尽管如此，方向已足够清晰，足以促使行动而非绝望：在田边种植本土野花带、逐步淘汰最有害的杀虫剂等恢复行动，反复证明昆虫种群可在压力减轻后回升。对普通人而言，这既是谦卑的提醒，也是赋权的召唤——记录自家花园的昆虫、留出一角不修剪的草坪，就能为传粉者提供庇护；草甸的嗡嗡声，其实是衡量人类健康的一把尺子。
五、思考与仿写
思考题：结合第 5、6 段，为什么说淡水昆虫数量的"回升"恰恰为昆虫衰退的逆转提供了希望？从"机制"角度谈谈你对"衰退并非不可逆"这句话的理解。
仿写题：仿照第 5 段 "As pollinator numbers fall, so too does the security of the harvests that feed billions."（As 引导状语从句 + so 引导的部分倒装）的句式，围绕「保护环境」「低碳出行」或「坚持阅读」写一个句子。