Part A :

I've been looking at ocean biodiversity, that's the diversity of species that live in the world's oceans.

我一直在研究海洋生物多样性，这就是生活在世界海洋中的物种的多样性．

About 20 years ago biologists developed the idea of what they called 'biodiversity hotspots'.

大约20年前，生物学家们发展了他们所谓的“生物多样性热区”的概念．

These are the areas which have the greatest mixture of species, so one example is Madagascar.

那些是物种最多的地区，所以一个例子就是马达加斯加．

These hotspots are significant because they allow us to locate key areas for focusing efforts at conservation.

这些热区是重要的，因为它们让我们找到重点保护工作的重点领域．

Biologists can identify hotspots on land, fairly easily, but until recently, very little was known about species distribution and diversity in the oceans, and no one even knew if hotspots existed there.

生物学家可以很容易地确定土地上的热区，但直到最近，关于物种在海洋中的分布和多样性知道的非常少，甚至没有人知道是否存在热点地区

Then a Canadian biologist called Boris Worm did some research in 2005 on data on ocean species that he got from the fishing industry.

然后，在2005年，一位名叫鲍里斯的加拿大生物学家在海洋物种上做了一些研究，他从捕鱼业获得数据．

Worm located five hotspots for large ocean predators like sharks, and looked at what they had in common.

沃尔姆大型海洋食肉动物(如鲨鱼)中定位了5个热点，并观察他们相似的地方．

The main thing he'd expected to find was that they had very high concentrations of food, but to his surprise that was only true for four of the hotspots - the remaining hotspot was quite badly off in that regard.

他期望发现的是，他们有非常高浓度的食物，但令他惊讶的是，只有四个热点是这样的--剩下的那个热点在那方面情况非常不佳．

But what he did find was that in all cases, the water at the surface of the ocean had relatively high temperatures, even when it was cool at greater depths, so this seemed to be a factor in supporting a diverse range of these large predators.

但他发现的是，在所有的情况下，海洋表面的水有相对较高的温度，即使是在较深的地方是微凉的，所以这似乎是支持大型食肉动物多样性的一个因素．

However, this wasn't enough on its own, because he also found that the water needed to have enough oxygen in it - so these two factors seemed necessary to support the high metabolic rate of these large fish.

然而，这本身是不够的，因为他还发现，水需要有足够的氧气--所以这2个因素似乎是必要的，以支持这些大型鱼类的高代谢率．

A couple of years later, in 2007, a researcher called Lisa Balance, who was working in California, also started looking for ocean hotspots, but not for fish - what she was interested in was marine mammals, things like seals.

几年后，在2007，一个在加利福尼亚工作的叫丽莎的研究者，也开始寻找海洋热点，但不是研究鱼--她所感兴趣的是海洋哺乳动物，比如海豹．

And she found three places in the oceans which were hotspots, and what these had in common was that these hotspots were all located at boundaries between ocean currents, and this seems to be the sort of place that has lots of the plankton that some of these species feed on.

她发现海洋中的三个热点，这些热点的共同点是，都位于大洋环流之间的边界，而这似乎是有很多浮游生物的地方．

So now people who want to protect the species that are endangered need to get as much information as possible.

所以现在想要保护濒危物种的人们需要尽可能获得更多的信息．

For example, there's an international project called the Census of Marine Life.

例如，有一个国际项目叫做海洋生物普查．

They've been surveying oceans all over the world, including the Arctic.

他们在全世界测量海洋，包括北极地区的海洋．

One thing they found there which stunned other researchers was that there were large numbers of species which live below the ice - sometimes under a layer up to 20 metres thick.

他们发现有一件震惊了其他研究人员的事情：在冰下面生存着大量的物种，有时在厚达20米的冰层下(生活)。

Some of these species had never been seen before.

有些物种以前从未见过．

They've even found species of octopus living in these conditions.

他们甚至在这些条件下发现了章鱼的种类．

And other scientists working on the same project, but researching very different habitats on the ocean floor, have found large numbers of species congregating around volcanoes, attracted to them by the warmth and nutrients there.

并且，从事同一项研究的其他科学家，但是研究海底不同的栖息地，发现了大量的物种聚集在火山周围，被那里的温暖和营养吸引．