今日亚马逊当从先人古训(2/2)
概括：森林破坏致使亚马逊河流域正在慢慢消失，一项新研究声称，亚马逊河流域的古代耕作方法可以为今天提供宝贵的教训。Hints：
pre-Columbian
savanna
Mitchell Power
Natural History Museum
University of Utah
Columbian encounter
slash-and-burn
Amazon
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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翻译：ldzh43
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组长：澈底
答疑：ldzh43http://t1.g.hjfile.cn/listen/201204/201204220845123711718.mp3He says this fire-free method by the pre-Columbian farmers helped change the seasonally flooded savanna, or grassland, into productive cropland. Raised fields provide better drainage and soil aeration and also hold moisture during the dry season.
This fire-free method of agriculture would have been labor intensive. It ended when up to 95% of the native people died from diseases brought by the Europeans. Mitchell Power is curator of the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah.
"Once the Columbian encounter happens, we don't see that type of agriculture anymore. We start to see increased burning and a shift towards dry-land farming. So people were then clearing forests and making their raised beds in the forests. And so, what we think is happening is that there was a huge demographic collapse in this region."
The European colonizers brought slash-and-burn methods of agriculture that remain a threat to the rainforest. Experts say at current rates, more than half of the Amazon's tropical rainforest could be gone by 2030. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.他说前哥伦比亚时期农民使用的的这种免焚烧方法有助于将受季节性洪水侵害的热带草原改造成高产农田。在旱季，台田的排水能力和土地透气性更佳，并能保持湿度。
这种免焚烧的农业生产方式本应该适用于劳动密集型。当95%的当地人死于欧洲人传播过来的疾病后，这一方法便消亡了。迈歇尔·鲍尔是犹他大学国家历史博物馆的馆长。
“‘哥伦比亚大遭遇’一发生，我们便再也看不到这一农业方式了，却开始发现焚烧现象日益增多，并逐渐向旱作式农业转移。于是人们随后清除了森林，在其中建造他们的台田。因此目前我们认为这地区曾发生过一次巨大的人口崩溃。”
欧洲殖民者带来的刀耕火种的农业生产方式如今仍是亚马逊雨林的一大威胁。专家们认为按照现在的速度，2030年或有一半以上的亚马逊热带雨林消失。这一研究发表于《国家科学研究院学报》。
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