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But in the case of trees of the genus Inga, which boasts 300 species, Phyllis Coley of the University of Utah, one of the station's old hands (she began her work there in 1995), thinks she has done so.
但就拥有300个品种的英加属树木而言，犹他大学的Phyllis Coley（该站的资深工作人员之一，她于1995年开始工作）认为她已经做到了这一点。
The driving force behind Inga's diversity, according to Dr Coley and her team, is herbivory — specifically by the moth and butterfly caterpillars that eat its members' leaves.
根据Coley博士及其团队的说法，英加属树木多样性背后的驱动力是食草性，具体来说是蛾子和蝴蝶幼虫以该属树木的叶子为食。
Over the years, they have studied 174 of these lepidopteran persecutors.
多年来，他们研究了174种鳞翅目害虫。
They have shown that most are picky eaters, choosing their meals based on which toxic chemicals (there are about 200 varieties) particular trees pack into their leaves.
他们发现，大多数害虫都很挑食，会根据特定树木的叶子中含有的有毒化学物质（大约有200种）来选择食物。
Such specialisation in turn encourages diversification, as new species with new, temporarily insect-proof toxin profiles emerge.
挑食反过来又促进了多样化，因为出现了暂时具有防虫毒素特性的新物种。
Predation by insects is not, however, the only thing that encourages arboreal speciation. Habitat differences can help.
然而，昆虫的捕食并不是促进树栖物种形成的唯一因素。栖息地的差异也有影响。
Camila Pizano, of Lake Forest College in Illinois, studies the island's population of Trema micrantha.
伊利诺伊州森林湖学院的Camila Pizano研究了岛上的山黄花属植物。
This comes in two types, distinguishable by the sizes of their seeds, which prefer subtly different habitats.
山黄花属植物有两种，可根据种子大小进行区分，它们喜欢的栖息地略有不同。
As she explained, both require the forest's otherwise-uninterrupted canopy to have been opened to the sky by some accident to provide light for their growth.
正如她所解释的那样，这两种植物都需要森林中原本不间断的树冠因某种意外打开，以便为它们的生长提供光照。
One variety, though, does best if the opening was caused by a landslip, which clears the soil of nitrogen-rich leaf litter and exposes the phosphorus-rich subsurface.
不过，如果山体滑坡导致树冠打开，其中一种植物生长得最好，因为山体滑坡清除了土壤中富含氮的落叶，露出了富含磷的地下层。
The other thrives in the aftermath of a tree fall, when the soil remains nitrogen-rich and phosphorus-poor.
另一种植物在树木倒下后茁壮成长，此时土壤仍然富含氮，缺乏磷。
Whatever the details, T. micranthalooks like a species dividing in two. How insects speciate is also under investigation at the STRI.
无论细节如何，山黄花属植物看起来都像是一分为二的物种。STRI还研究了昆虫物种形成的过程。
Owen McMillan and his group study a genus of toxic butterflies called Heliconius, which warn predators off by evolving distinctive colour patterns mimicked by other, less toxic, species.
Owen McMillan和他的团队研究了一种名为Heliconius的有毒蝴蝶，这种蝴蝶通过进化出独特颜色图案来警告捕食者，其他毒性较小的物种也会模仿这些图案。
As part of their work this group's researchers have used CRISPR genetic editing to create a novel butterfly wing-colour pattern that looks, superficially, at least, like a new species.
该团队的研究人员使用CRISPR基因编辑创造了一种新颖的蝴蝶翅膀颜色图案，至少从表面上看，它看起来像一个新物种。
Whether the new morph, with its ivory-coloured wings, would prosper in the wild is unlikely ever to be tested, for releasing gene-edited organisms is frowned on.
这种具有象牙色翅膀的新变种是否会在野外繁衍生息不太可能得到验证，因为释放基因编辑生物不被允许。
But the ability to create new heliconid designs is intriguing. There was more. Much more.
但创造新的Heliconid设计的能力很有趣。还有更多研究。
Rachel Page, heir to Griffin as head of the institute's bat research, reviewed classic studies of how the island's 74 bat species are defined not only by what they eat (fruit, frogs, fish, insects and, for vampires, blood)
格里芬（Griffin）的继承人、研究所蝙蝠研究负责人雷切尔·佩奇（Rachel Page）回顾了经典研究，这些研究指出岛上74种蝙蝠不仅由食物（水果、青蛙、鱼、昆虫，血）来界定，
but also by when and where, thus minimising competition and increasing the effective number of ecological niches.
还根据时间和地点界定，从而最大限度地减少竞争，增加生态位的有效数量。
Kane Lawhorn entertained the troops with an explanation of how the frequency of lightning strikes regulates beetle populations (by providing food in the form of dead and injured trees),
凯恩·劳霍恩（Kane Lawhorn）解释了雷击频率如何调节甲虫种群（通过提供死树和受伤树木作为甲虫的食物），
while Andrew Seiler talked of a different sort of "weather": the constant rain of arthropods pitter-pattering from the canopy to the forest floor.
而安德鲁·塞勒（Andrew Seiler）则谈到了另一种“天气”：节肢动物不断从树冠上劈啪作响落到森林地面上。
Roland Kays described his adventures tracking kinkajous (arboreal relatives of raccoons) with GPS-enabled radio tags and told of one particularly large and dominant male being posthumously crapped on in apparent triumph by rivals.
罗兰·凯斯（Roland Kays）描述了他用GPS无线电标签追踪蜜熊（浣熊的树栖亲戚）的冒险经历，并讲述了一只占主导地位的大型雄性蜜熊死后，对手得意洋洋地在它身上拉屎。
His collaborator, Meg Crofoot, explained that kinkajous, which have smaller brains than the local monkeys, are just as successful at foraging for food, suggesting better foraging is not the reason big brains have evolved.
他的合作者梅格·克罗福特(Meg Crofoot)解释说，蜜熊的脑容量比当地的猴子要小，但它们的觅食能力很强，这表明觅食能力增强并不是大脑进化的原因。
Such findings are striking. But Barro Colorado's most important contribution to ecology may be in serving as inspiration to try similar things elsewhere.
这些发现令人震惊。但巴罗·科罗拉多对生态学最重要的贡献可能是启发人们在其他地方尝试类似的研究。
Those 77 simulacra of the Forest Dynamics Plot, for example, constitute, together with the Panamanian original, a network called the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO), which is an attempt to compare and contrast forest ecology across the planet.
例如，这77个森林动态图模拟与巴拿马的原始图像一起构成了一个全球森林生物多样性监测网络，该网络试图比较和对比全球的森林生态。
Stuart Davies, ForestGEO's director, told the meeting that ForestGEO itself is being recruited, along with similar networks covering tropical, temperate and boreal forests, into a megaproject called GEO-TREES.
ForestGEO主任斯图尔特·戴维斯 (Stuart Davies) 在会议上表示，ForestGEO正在与覆盖热带、温带和北方森林的类似网络一起被纳入到一个名为GEO-TREES的大型项目中。
The organisers of this hope to use local estimates of biomass to calibrate satellite measurements of the same areas.
该项目的组织者希望使用当地的生物量估计值来校准相同地区的卫星测量值。
That would make extrapolations from space-based measurements more reliable. This is important.
这将使基于太空测量的推断更加可靠。这很重要。
Tropical rainforests are huge stores of carbon that might otherwise add to atmospheric carbon dioxide.
热带雨林是巨大的碳储存库，若是遭到破坏，可能会增加大气中的二氧化碳。
Understanding whether they are, in any given place, increasing their carbon stocks or releasing them into the air, is crucial to monitoring global warming.
了解它们在某个地方是增加了碳储量还是将其释放到空气中，对于监测全球变暖至关重要。
More accurate measurements would also enable more regular check-ups to police untoward changes.
更准确的测量也将使更定期的检查成为可能，以监测不良变化。
For, much as urgent change is needed to combat global warming, when it comes to forests, the urgent need is for nothing to change at all.
因为，尽管需要紧急改变以应对全球变暖，但当涉及到森林时，迫切需要的是根本不要改变。
