我是半路出家的生態(tài)學(xué)家。這是我首次就大自然這個(gè)話(huà)題跟大家分享。這篇文章是作為我個(gè)人在野外科研和理論學(xué)習(xí)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)給愿意了解大自然的小伙伴們的一點(diǎn)淺薄建議。

先鼓勵(lì)一下大家：首先無(wú)論你是對(duì)大自然微感興趣，還是你想成為專(zhuān)業(yè)的生物學(xué)家，不管你多大年齡，現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始都不晚。而唯一能夠驅(qū)動(dòng)你的只有一個(gè)，那就是因興趣所帶來(lái)的好奇心。我們中間只會(huì)有生態(tài)“學(xué)”家，永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)產(chǎn)生生態(tài)或生物“專(zhuān)”家。到目前為止人類(lèi)甚至不知道我們這個(gè)星球上有多少物種，就連大概的數(shù)目也是個(gè)謎，當(dāng)前有各種估值，估算最多的有1億種。所以其實(shí)人人都可以對(duì)大自然進(jìn)行研究，人人都可以成為生態(tài)學(xué)家。雖然要做到像David Attenborough那樣很難，但即使是Attenborough,距離了解大自然也還是太遠(yuǎn)，一個(gè)人就算是付諸一生去學(xué)習(xí)研究，也最多是對(duì)一個(gè)特定地域的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)和物種有非常淺顯的了解。

想對(duì)大自然進(jìn)行研究，首先應(yīng)了解生態(tài)系統(tǒng)大概的運(yùn)作方式，再慢慢對(duì)單個(gè)物種進(jìn)行深入了解和研究是相對(duì)比較符合邏輯且能培養(yǎng)興趣的方式。在學(xué)習(xí)的時(shí)候大家能拿到的可能最容易且聲色并茂的就是紀(jì)錄片了。最為推薦的就是BBC的紀(jì)錄片。英國(guó)人很擅長(zhǎng)將大自然客觀地講出來(lái)，所以BBC關(guān)于大自然的紀(jì)錄片可以讓大家作為重點(diǎn)來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)，有時(shí)間的話(huà)我也許會(huì)將這些紀(jì)錄片分類(lèi)方便大家觀看學(xué)習(xí)。在BBC的關(guān)于自然的紀(jì)錄片中，How Nature Works這個(gè)系列可以作為你對(duì)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)了解的初步也是很重要的第一課。

在學(xué)習(xí)的過(guò)程中我強(qiáng)烈建議大家做筆記，信息量大的紀(jì)錄片（如How Nature Works這個(gè)系列）可以多看兩遍，把聽(tīng)到的連貫總結(jié)起來(lái)，確保自己真的都明白了，這樣可以避免走馬觀花聽(tīng)完就忘了的問(wèn)題，也能排除一些一筆帶過(guò)沒(méi)有仔細(xì)聽(tīng)而錯(cuò)過(guò)或沒(méi)聽(tīng)懂的知識(shí)點(diǎn)。不做筆記的話(huà)有些紀(jì)錄片看完之后過(guò)段時(shí)間可能會(huì)忘得只剩當(dāng)初印象最深刻的一個(gè)知識(shí)點(diǎn)甚至完全忘記，這樣反而是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，而多出一點(diǎn)時(shí)間做筆記就可以加強(qiáng)記憶也能在回憶的時(shí)候產(chǎn)生更濃厚的興趣和思考。

如果可以，就把生活或旅行中逛街的部分勻出來(lái)一部分給大自然吧，就算不為學(xué)習(xí)，身體也會(huì)更喜歡養(yǎng)分充足的地方。如果允許，可以多些時(shí)間來(lái)觀察細(xì)節(jié)，看到物種可以思考他們?cè)谏鷳B(tài)系統(tǒng)中的角色，用圖片的形式記錄下來(lái)，然后回家去翻閱資料或者上網(wǎng)找他們的科學(xué)名和生物特性。在實(shí)踐的最初階段其實(shí)是最難的，因?yàn)槟銜?huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)如果不是興趣，你是不會(huì)去翻十幾本書(shū)去確定一個(gè)物種，同樣如果不是興趣，你不會(huì)明白這個(gè)地球上有那么多在我們看來(lái)長(zhǎng)得如此相似的物種。但如果能夠靠著興趣慢慢堅(jiān)持下來(lái)，時(shí)間久了，你會(huì)越來(lái)越快地辨別不同物種之間的差異。

下面是我關(guān)于Seasonal Forest 這一集的筆記。筆記在記錄的時(shí)候是直接用英文總結(jié)下來(lái)的，尤其是有些物種名也并不是很清楚中文名所以沒(méi)有轉(zhuǎn)換成中文，所以有興趣的可以隨便看看。當(dāng)然不是必須，但個(gè)人建議如果想了解全世界的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)懂得英文是相當(dāng)必要的。原因有三：一是因?yàn)槿澜缤ㄓ玫奈锓N拉丁名，二是生態(tài)研究的科學(xué)報(bào)告大都是以英文發(fā)表（包括在國(guó)際科學(xué)雜志上發(fā)表自己研究報(bào)告的國(guó)內(nèi)研究人員）。三是中國(guó)在生態(tài)研究方面還處在非常落后的階段（抱歉，這是事實(shí)）。

祝大家熱愛(ài)大自然。

Seasonal Forest 的筆記如下：
Summary:
1. The whole forest needs fungi to breath by the process of decomposition, trees need the network of hypha to develop underground. Fungi needs flying squirrels to travel their spores.
2. Caterpillars and herbivores give control on the distribution and the development of the trees, in which the hares are fed on the fallen trees, the lynx is fed on hares.
3. The whole forest is nourished by nitrogens from migrating salmons during the wet season with the help of other animals and the whole forest. where there are limited nutrients from the plants caused by the blushing of the rain. The salmons travel at the high water level season for laying their eggs at nutrient and oxygen rich section of the stream, which also makes a safe place from the forest shades for their eggs.

Fungi as the ultimate decomposers connects the whole ecosystem in forests, autumn is the best season for fungi sporocarps to germinate as the falls of the leaves. Flying squirrel as a night mammal, forge on fungus, carrying spores in their guts, gliding from tree to tree, defecates the spores to a new place, which makes a network of up to 10 square meters of a single fungus underground system with the help of the tree roots, in return the hypha helps the tree to grow and expand their own species, which is the reason of the domination of certain tree species.

Grizzly bear ecosystem:
Grizzly plays a key role bring nitrogen to the forest. They feed on salmons during autumns (rain season) for accumulating calories for 5 months of survival of the coming winter (60,000 calories = 550 chocolate bars per day). They catch salmons and eat in the woods as it is safer there for protecting their cubs from other adult males. They eat only the fattest parts such as brains etc. and leave the rest on the forest ground. Other animals like banana slugs (the biggest slug in the world) eat the rest of the fish. The remains make good incubators for flies to lay their eggs on, the nutrients of the tree can be provided by the decomposition of the remains. And in the next spring, the bears are fed on the plants, which the nitrogen is composed by the fish parts that were abandoned by them the last winter. The DNA examination of the bear hair has proved that the bear has been fed on 80% of oceanic nitrogens which is mainly from the salmon. And according to the DNA examination of the tree, 85% of the nitrogen was also from the ocean. Salmon fuels are utilised and carried by all animals in the forests.

Temperature plummets by winter,
Wood frogs and newly hatched painted turtles freeze solid, antifreeze in their blood keeps them alive until spring.

Moose, white-tailed deer, wolverines, birds, squirrels do not hibernate. Not easy for some animals to survive the winter as it is too cold for them, their death brings food to small scavengers animals.

The lynx feeds on snowshoe hares during winters. The population of hares and lynx are correlated. And the population of the hares is correlated with the budworms which bring the falls of the trees.