不列颠考察船队的旗舰——查尔斯·达尔文号皇家考察船,在环绕地球海洋三年的航行后,于上周返回它的大本营——南威尔士巴里港。在二十多万公里的旅行中,大约二百名科学家考察了海洋科学方面极其广泛的问题。更深刻地了解海洋,对于研究地球气候格局与天气变化,是非常重要的。普利茅斯海洋实验室的科学家获得了一个有关地球变暖的重要发现:印度洋细菌大量产生一氧化二氮——一种明显导致温室效应的气体。通常,空气中注入的一氧化二氮,大部分归咎于汽车排气。“看来,海洋中生物产生的一氧化二氮,如果说不是超过人造源的话,那么至少和其同样严重”,普利茅斯实验室的克利福·劳说。在另一个有关地球的重要研究中,萨里海洋科学中心实验室学会的戴维·韦布及其同 The flagship of the British Inspector's Fleet, the Charles Darwin Royal Survey Vessel, returned to its base camp, Barry, South Wales, last week after three years of orbiting the Earth's oceans. In more than 200,000 kilometers of travel, about 200 scientists examined the most extensive issues in marine science. A deeper understanding of the oceans and seas is very important for studying the earth's climate pattern and weather changes. Scientists at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory got an important discovery about global warming: Indian bacteria produce nitrous oxide in large quantities - a gas that clearly causes the greenhouse effect. Often, most of the nitrous oxide injected into the air is attributed to the car's exhaust. “It seems that the nitrous oxide produced by the creatures in the oceans, at least if not more man-made, is as serious as it is,” said Clifford Law of Plymouth Laboratories. In another important study of the Earth, David Webb of the Surrey Marine Science Center Laboratory Society and its