印尼消防人員和同僚聯繫，討論如何處理泥炭地火災。 美聯社 a keeper of carbon is at risk

kristyn housman grabbed the end of a sampling auger, a steel tube that two colleagues had just drilled into a moss-covered hummock in a peat bog, and poked through a damp, fibrous plug of partly decomposed peat.

peat has been building up for centuries in this bog, where the spongy moss is interspersed with black spruces and, on a late spring morning, the air is teeming with mosquitoes. the sample, taken from 3 feet down, is at least several hundred years old, said housman, a graduate researcher at mcmaster university in hamilton, ontario.

克麗斯汀．郝斯曼抓起一個採樣用螺旋鑽的尾端，鑽進一個潮濕、含有纖維且部分腐爛的圓柱形泥炭樣本中。她的兩位同事才剛剛用這種鋼管，鑽探泥炭沼澤中一座長滿苔蘚的小丘。

泥炭已在這片沼澤中積累幾世紀，這裡鬆軟的苔蘚中穿插著一些黑雲杉，暮春早晨的空氣中盡是蚊子。郝斯曼是加拿大安大略省哈密爾頓市麥克馬斯特大學的研究生研究員，她說，這個樣本從地下3呎取得，至少已有幾百年歷史。

“there’s literally tons of carbon here,” she said, looking around the bog, which covers several acres off a muddy oil-company road amid the vast flatness of northern alberta.

in discussions of how nature regulates carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, forests receive most of the attention for their ability to absorb and store carbon. but peatlands play an important role, too.

她一邊說「這裡真的有好幾噸二氧化碳」，一邊環顧沼澤。沼澤廣達幾英畝，位在加拿大亞伯達省北部這片廣袤平原中一條泥濘的石油公司道路附近。

在「大自然如何調節大氣中二氧化碳」的相關討論中，森林以吸收和儲存二氧化碳的能力獲得最多注意，不過，泥炭地也扮演重要角色。

there are an estimated 1.6 million square miles of peatlands, or about 3 percent of the earth’s land surface, mostly in northern latitudes in canada, alaska, europe and russia.

peat is made up of sphagnum and other mosses, which hold a large amount of water and contain compounds that inhibit decomposition. the peat slowly builds up over centuries because the annual growth exceeds the decay.

地球上約有160萬平方哩泥炭地，占地表陸地面積3%，大多位於北半球加拿大、美國阿拉斯加州、歐洲和俄國。

泥炭由泥炭蘚與其他苔蘚構成，這些苔蘚含有大量水分和抑制分解的複合物。泥炭經過幾個世紀慢慢積累擴大，因為每年成長的速度超過分解的速度。

a relatively small amount of peat is mined to burn as fuel, to improve backyard gardens or to add smokiness to scotch. but most of it stays where it is, and because it accumulates carbon over such a long time, it contains more carbon than is in all the world’s trees and plants, and nearly as much as the atmosphere does.

like forests, peatlands are threatened by climate change. warming temperatures can dry out bogs, making them more susceptible to fires, and to deeper, more intense burning. a peat fire, which can smolder like a cigarette for months, can release a lot of carbon.

只有為數甚少的泥炭被利用：當作燃料焚燒，為後院花園增添養分，或為蘇格蘭威士忌增加泥炭煙燻味。絕大多數的泥炭則留在原地，而且由於泥炭累積二氧化碳這麼長時間，泥炭的二氧化碳含量比全世界樹木和植物的含量還多，幾乎跟大氣中的含量相當。

泥炭地跟森林一樣受氣候變遷威脅。氣溫升高讓沼澤乾涸，更易受火災和深層、強烈悶燒影響。泥炭地火災能像香菸一樣悶燒數月，釋出大量二氧化碳。

“it’s carbon that has accumulated over several thousands of years,” said mike waddington, a mcmaster professor who has been researching peat in alberta and elsewhere for more than two decades. “if it were to be released, the global co2 concentration would be much higher.”

the world has already had vast releases of carbon from peat, in indonesia. last year, bogs that had been drained for agriculture, and were drier because of el nino-related warmth, burned for months, creating a haze visible from space and causing widespread health problems.

麥克馬斯特大學教授沃丁頓在亞伯達和其他地方研究泥炭超過20年，他說：「這些二氧化碳已經積累了好幾千年，一旦釋出，全球二氧化碳濃度就會高上許多。」

這個世界已有大量二氧化碳從印尼的泥炭地釋出。去年泥炭地為了轉作農業用途被抽乾水分，又因與聖嬰現象相關的高溫天氣變得更乾燥，起火燃燒了數月，冒出的煙霧從太空都能看到，且導致許多人的健康問題。

（文／henry fountain　譯／李京倫）

說文解字看新聞

teem是指雨「傾瀉」，teem with則是「充滿許多」（人或動物），例如：the camps teem with about 135,000 refugees.（難民營內擠了大概13萬5000個難民。）

literally是「照字面地」，translate literally就是「照字面直譯」，本文的literally為非正式用法「確實地、不誇張地」，例如：this orangutan is literally using a carrot and stick to teach its baby. （這隻猩猩真的是用胡蘿蔔和棍棒教導自己的小孩。）

泥炭（peat）由石楠、苔蘚、蕨類等植物殘骸經細菌腐化分解而成，又稱為草炭或泥煤，是煤化程度最低的煤。蘇格蘭盛產泥炭，泥炭不僅作為日常生活中的燃料，也用來製造蘇格蘭威士忌。

以「用泥炭烘乾的大麥」製作威士忌，會產生獨特的煙燻味。幾乎所有的蘇格蘭威士忌都含有泥炭成分，只是大多數泥炭度（peatiness）不高，一般人喝不出來。

（文／李京倫）