are "very worried" that the melting of the Greenlandice sheet could accelerate and raise sea levels more thanexpected.
科学家们非常担心格陵兰冰原的融化可能会加速海平面上升，并使海平面上升超过预计水平。
say warmer conditions are encouraging algae to grow anddarken the surface.
他们说，温度的上升促进藻类的生长并使海水表面变暗。
ice absorbs more solar radiation than clean white ice sowarms up and melts more rapidly.
暗色的海面比白色的冰面可以吸收更多太阳辐射，所以暖化和融化得更快。
the Greenland ice sheet is adding up to 1mm a year tothe rise in the global average level of the oceans.
目前，格陵兰岛的冰层的融化使得全球平均每年海平面上升1毫米。
is the largest mass of ice in the northern hemispherecovering an area about seven times the size of the United Kingdomand reaching up to 3km (2 miles) in thickness.
它是北半球最大的冰群，面积约为英国的7倍，厚度达到3公里(2英里)。
means that the average sea level would rise around theworld by about seven metres, more than 20ft, if it all melted.
这意味着如果全部融化，海平面上升大约7米。
That is why Greenland, though remote, is a focus of researchwhich has direct relevance to major coastal cities as far apart asMiami, London and Shanghai and low-lying areas in Bangladesh andparts of Britain.
这就是为什么格陵兰岛虽然地处偏远，但却是研究的焦点，它与迈阿密、伦敦、上海以及孟加拉国和英国部分低洼地区的主要沿海城市有直接关系。
were first observed on the Greenland ice sheet more than acentury ago but until recently its potential impact was ignored.Only in the last few years have researchers started to explore howthe microscopically small plants could affect future melting.
一个多世纪前，人们首次在格陵兰冰盖上观察到藻类，但这之前，它所暗示的影响都被忽视了。只有在过去的几年里，研究人员才开始探索显微镜下的这些小型植物如何影响冰面的融化。
concern now is that rising temperatures will allow algae toflourish not only on the slopes of the narrow margins of theice-sheet but also on the flat areas in the far larger interiorwhere melting could happen on a much bigger scale.
现在的一个担忧是，气温上升将使藻类不仅在冰盖狭窄的山坡上生长，而且还可能会在面积更大的内陆地区的平原上生长。
snow reflects up to 90% of solar radiation while darkpatches of algae will only reflect about 35% or even as little as1% in the blackest spots.
白色的雪反射了高达90%的太阳辐射，而暗黑的藻类在最黑的地方只能反射出35%甚至1%的辐射。
the last 20 years, Greenland has been losing more ice thanit gains through snowfall in winter - a change in a natural balancethat normally keeps the ice-sheet stable.
在过去的里，格陵兰岛融化的冰比冬天的降雪还要多，但本来这是一个自然的维持冰原平衡的变化。
research had found that the ice sheet is covered with arange of contaminants carried on the winds including dust and sootfrom as far away as Canadian prairie fires and the industrialheartlands of China, America and Europe.
早些时候的研究发现，冰盖覆盖着一系列污染物，包括来自遥远的加拿大草原的火灾，还有来自中国、美国和欧洲的工业中心地带的灰尘和烟尘。
studies over the past five years have shown that themajority of the dark material may be biological with differentkinds of algae turning the ice black, brown, green and evenmauve.
但过去五年的研究表明，大多数深色物质可能是由不同种类的藻类组成的，它们会将冰面变成黑色、棕色、绿色甚至是紫红色。
Meanwhile, another factor that may be driving the melting hasbeen identified by an Austrian member of the team, Stefan Hofer, aPhD student at Bristol.
与此同时，另一个可能导致融化的因素已经被一个奥地利的研究小组成员——布里斯托尔的博士生斯特凡·霍弗研究出来。
a paper recently published in Science Advances, he analysedsatellite imagery and found that over the past 20 years there hasbeen a 15% decrease in cloud cover over Greenland in the summermonths.
在最近他发表在《科学进展》杂志上的一篇论文中，他分析了卫星图像，发现在过去的里，格陵兰岛的云层在夏季减少了15%。
Although temperature is an obvious driver of melting, the paperestimated that two-thirds of additional melting, above thelong-term average, was attributable to clearer skies.
尽管温度很显然是融化的原因，但报告估计，长期观测发现，额外的三分之二的融化原因是由于相对晴朗的天空。
Black and Bloom project, funded by the Natural EnvironmentResearch Council (Nerc), aims to publish its new projections forsea level rise in two years’ time.
由自然环境研究委员会(Nerc)资助的“The Black and Bloom”旨在公布两年内海平面上升的预测情况。
