時差N小時:北冰洋的淡水湖憂患(上)

　　An ocean is the last place you’d expect to find afreshwater lake. As strange as it may seem, theArctic Ocean is home to a lake roughly twice the sizeof Lake Victoria, one of the largest freshwater lakesin the world. This arctic lake is located in theBeaufort Gyre, an area near northwestern Canadawhere the water circulates in a clockwise pattern.Normally, as rivers empty into an ocean, fresh watermixes with the salty ocean water. Over the lastdecade, scientists have discovered that arctic riverwater and melting sea ice have pooled with littlemixing. The growing pond isn’t entirely salt free, but its size and stability have scientistsworried.

　　海洋是能找到淡水湖的最后的地方。看起來似乎很奇怪，北冰洋中的湖泊，其大小是世界上最大的淡水湖泊之一“維多利亞湖”的兩倍。這個北極湖位于加拿大西北部附近的Beaufort Gyre，那里的水按順時針模式循環(huán)。通常情況下，河流流入海洋，淡水與咸海水混合。在過去十年里，科學(xué)家們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)，北極的河水和融化的海冰只有少許融合。日益增長的池塘并非完全無鹽，但其規(guī)模和穩(wěn)定性令科學(xué)家們擔(dān)心。