60%野生种群濒危?爱喝咖啡的看过来 / 开普饭

Hairy berries. Supersize seeds. No caffeine.

多毛的浆果。超大的种子。没有咖啡因。

Compared with the beans that supply our daily brew, the wild relatives of coffee plants can seem downright bizarre.

与我们日常饮用的咖啡豆相比，咖啡植物的野生亲戚似乎完全是怪异的。

But they also harbor genetic traits that could help farmed coffee plants survive threats such as drought and disease—and maybe create pleasing new cups in the process.

但它们也含有某些基因特征，可以帮助种植的咖啡植物抵御干旱和疾病等威胁，并在此过程中制造出令人愉悦的新咖啡口味。

Now, a new pair of studies says up to 60% of these wild coffee species could go extinct, some in the next 10 to 20 years, thanks to deforestation, human settlement, and climate change.

现在，一项新的研究表明，由于森林砍伐、人类定居和气候变化，60%的野生咖啡品种可能会在未来10到20年内灭绝，其中一些品种可能会灭绝。

There are 124 known species in the genus Coffea, but most of us drink domesticated versions of only two: tasty C. arabica, which accounts for two-thirds of the global market, and hardy C. canephora, better known as robusta, which comprises the rest.

目前已知的咖啡属有124种，但我们大多数人只喝两种经过驯化的咖啡:一种是美味的阿拉比卡咖啡，占全球市场的三分之二;还有就是哈代C. canephora，更广为人知的名字是罗布斯塔，它包含了其余部分。

But arabica is especially susceptible to diseases, such as the devastating coffee leaf rust fungus, and arabica-robusta hybrids that were once resistant are beginning to succumb as well.

但阿拉比卡尤其容易受到疾病的影响，比如破坏性极强的咖啡叶锈菌，阿拉比卡和罗布斯塔的杂交品种曾经具有抗性如今也收到疾病影响了。

To map the locations and health of wild coffee species, Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted the most comprehensive global assessment to date.

为了绘制野生咖啡种类的分布图和健康状况，英国皇家植物园咖啡研究主管亚伦·戴维斯及其同事进行了迄今为止最全面的全球评估。

They started with more than 5000 records of wild species compiled by other researchers and explorers, and they collected further data during dozens of expeditions to key areas in Africa, Madagascar, and Indian Ocean islands.

他们从其他研究人员和探险者收集的5000多种野生物种的记录开始，并在非洲、马达加斯加和印度洋岛屿的数十次探险中收集了进一步的数据。

After mapping the location of each species, they determined—based on plant population and habitat—which were at risk.

在绘制了每个物种的位置之后，他们根据处于危险中的植物种群和栖息地进行了测定。

Sixty percent were threatened with extinction, and some might already be extinct, they report this week in Science Advances.

他们在本周的《科学进展》杂志上报告说，60%的物种面临灭绝的威胁，其中一些可能已经灭绝。

“We knew it would be high, but we didn’t actually think it would be that high,” Davis says. For comparison, 22% of all plant species worldwide are threatened.

戴维斯说:“我们知道会很高，但实际上我们没想到会那么高。”相比之下，全世界22%的植物物种受到威胁。

In a separate study, Davis teamed up with other researchers from Kew and the Environment, Climate Change, and Coffee Forest forum in Addis Ababa for an in-depth look at wild arabica, which was at low risk in the global analysis.

在另一项研究中，戴维斯与Kew以及亚的斯亚贝巴的环境、气候变化和咖啡森林论坛的其他研究人员合作，深入研究了全球分析中风险较低的野生阿拉比卡。

Their new study, unlike the old, factored in climate change, using remote sensing data and computer modeling.

与以往的研究不同，他们的新研究利用遥感数据和计算机建模，将气候变化因素也考虑在内。

It proved to be crucial: They found that climate change could cut the population of wild arabica in half by 2080, the researchers report this month in Global Change Biology.

研究人员本月在《全球变化生物学》(Global change Biology)上发表报告称，事实证明，这一点至关重要:他们发现，到2080年，气候变化可能会使野生阿拉比卡的数量减少一半。

The finding suggests that other seemingly low-risk wild coffee species could in fact be at even higher risk, Davis says.

戴维斯说，这一发现表明，其他看似低风险的野生咖啡品种实际上可能面临更高的风险。

The new papers “strengthen what we know” about the vulnerability of wild coffee species, says Sarada Krishnan, director of global initiatives at the Denver Botanic Gardens and the owner of a coffee plantation in Jamaica.

丹佛植物园全球行动主管、牙买加一家咖啡种植园的所有者萨拉达·克里希南表示，这些新论文“加强了我们对野生咖啡物种脆弱性的认识”。

Two years ago, Krishnan and other scientists investigated one way of keeping wild coffee species alive: through gene banks.

两年前，克里希南和其他科学家研究了一种保持野生咖啡物种存活的方法:通过基因库。

These repositories house genetic material that can be grown back into plants should their wild cousins be wiped from the face of the earth.

这些基因库储存着遗传物质，一旦野生近亲从地球表面消失，这些遗传物质就可以重新生长为植物。

The most famous repository is the “doomsday” seed vault on Spitsbergen in Norway.

最著名的种子库是挪威斯匹次卑尔根的“世界末日”种子库。

But coffee seeds will not germinate after being frozen.

但是咖啡种子在冷冻后就不会发芽了。

Instead, plants have been haphazardly conserved in 52 field collections in coffee-growing countries.

相反，这些植物被零散地保存在52个咖啡种植园的田间集落中。

That’s an expensive, labor-intensive enterprise in areas with limited resources, making the beans’ continued existence precarious, Krishnan and others say.

克里斯南和其他人说，在资源有限的地区，这是一种昂贵的劳动密集型企业，使得咖啡豆的持续生存岌岌可危。

Because they can’t save all the coffee, Krishnan and her international team of coffee scientists prioritized four gene banks (three in Africa and one in Costa Rica) in their quest to save wild coffee.

因为他们无法保存所有的咖啡，克里斯南和她的国际咖啡科学家团队为了保存野生咖啡，将四个基因库(三个在非洲，一个在哥斯达黎加)放在了优先位置。

Among the immediate needs: Upgrade conditions for existing plants, restock with missing wild species, and enable sharing of data and genetic material—and find an estimated $25 million from industry over the next 25 years to fund it all.

当前的需求包括:改善现有植物的生存条件，补充缺少的野生物种，实现数据和遗传物质的共享，并在未来25年从工业界获得大约2500万美元的资金。

The wild species will be used to develop new, hardier varieties by coffee breeders like Simon Martin Mvuyekure, who is looking for disease- and drought-resistant crops to plant in East Africa.

这种野生品种将被西蒙·马丁·姆瓦伊库尔等咖啡种植者用来培育新的、更耐旱的品种，姆瓦伊库尔正在东非寻找抗病和抗旱的作物。

Another dream for some: to create a hybrid with a flavor as divine as the legendary bean that saved Panama’s coffee industry nearly 10 years ago.

有些人的另一个梦想是:创造出一种混合风味，就像近10年前拯救巴拿马咖啡行业的传奇咖啡豆一样神圣。

Growers there were facing record low prices and selling unprofitable land to developers, when one farm experimented with a wild Ethiopian strain whose seeds had originated at the Costa Rica gene bank.

当地的种植者正面临着创纪录的低价，将无利可图的土地卖给开发商的困境。

Known as Geisha, its distinctive flowery aroma rated high among tasters and broke all records at auction.

有一种“艺伎”咖啡以其独特的花香在品尝者中享有很高的评价，并打破了所有拍卖记录。

It is now the most expensive coffee on Earth.

它现在是世界上最昂贵的咖啡。