This is Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

As Houston begins recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey, a new storm threat - Hurricane Irma - is barreling west towards the Caribbean and Florida. We have few defenses against hurricanes' lashing rains and wind and storm surge - but nature does provide one.

"Wetlands act in two ways to reduce the impacts of storms. They reduce storm surge by acting as a wall or a barrier and they act as a sponge by soaking up the waters that come down via rainfall."

Michael Beck is a coastal scientist at The Nature Conservancy and the University of California Santa Cruz. He says as we've paved over swampy coastlines, we've changed how storm waters flow. Or, for an analogy a little closer to home: "Rain falls on your driveway it's going to run straight out into the street. Rain falls in your garden it's going to soak into the ground. When you've done that at the scale of whole watersheds, there's no place for that water to go when it rains."

But some wetlands do remain. Beck and his colleagues teamed up with the insurance industry, and, using the industry's risk assessment models, asked: how much more damage would Hurricane Sandy have delivered if all the eastern seaboard's wetlands were gone? And they found that marshy coastlines saved some $ 625 million in direct flood damages - or about one percent of Sandy's total cost.

Researchers also battered Ocean County, New Jersey, with thousands of hypothetical storms using flood models. And they found that wetlands cut flood damages there by 16 percent, compared to areas of the county where wetlands are gone. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.

Next, it's up to local governments and the insurance industry to take notice. "Certainly we hope that we will continue to conserve wetlands in part for their intrinsic beauty and the importance of nature." But he says by putting a price-tag on the economic benefit of wetlands, it might change the conversation about conservation.

Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

Adapted from 湿地既能保护城市又能减少损失

1. barrel v. (North Amercian English, informal) to move very fast in a particular direction, especially in a way that you cannot control （无法控制地）高速行进，飞驰。例如：He came barreling down the hill and smashed into a phone booth. 他沿山坡飞驰下来，撞在了一个电话亭上。

2. swamp n. an area of ground that is very wet or covered with water and in which plants, trees, etc. are growing 沼泽（地）

3. batter v. batter at / on sth. | batter sb. / sth. to hit sb. /sth. hard many times, especially in a way that causes serious damage 连续猛击；殴打

4. intrinsic adj. intrinsic (to sth.) belonging to or part of the real nature of sth. / sb. 固有的；内在的；本身的。例如：

This is Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

As Houston begins recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey, a new storm threat - Hurricane Irma - is barreling west towards the Caribbean and Florida. We have few defenses against hurricanes' lashing rains and wind and storm surge - but ________________ does provide one.

"Wetlands act in two ways to reduce the impacts of storms. They reduce storm surge by acting as ____________________________ and they act as __________________ by soaking up the waters that come down via rainfall."

Michael Beck is a ___________________________ at The Nature Conservancy and the University of California Santa Cruz. He says as we've paved over swampy coastlines, we've changed how storm waters flow. Or, for an analogy a little closer to home: "Rain falls on your ____________ it's going to run straight out into the street. Rain falls in your ___________ it's going to soak into the ground. When you've done that at the scale of whole watersheds, there's no place for that water to go when it rains."

But some ______________________ do remain. Beck and his colleagues teamed up with the insurance industry, and, using the industry's risk assessment models, asked: how much more damage would Hurricane Sandy have delivered if all the eastern seaboard's wetlands were gone? And they found that marshy coastlines saved some $ 625 million in direct flood damages - or about one percent of Sandy's total cost.

Researchers also ____________________ Ocean County, New Jersey, with thousands of hypothetical storms using flood models. And they found that wetlands cut flood damages there by 16 percent, compared to areas of the county where wetlands are gone. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.

Next, it's up to _____________________ and the ______________________ to take notice. "Certainly we hope that we will continue to conserve wetlands in part for their intrinsic beauty and the importance of nature." But he says by putting a price-tag on the economic benefit of wetlands, it might change the conversation about conservation.

Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

This is Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

As Houston begins recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey, a new storm threat - Hurricane Irma - is barreling west towards the Caribbean and Florida. We have few defenses against hurricanes' lashing rains and wind and storm surge - but nature does provide one.

"Wetlands act in two ways to reduce the impacts of storms. They reduce storm surge by acting as a wall or a barrier and they act as a sponge by soaking up the waters that come down via rainfall."

Michael Beck is a coastal scientist at The Nature Conservancy and the University of California Santa Cruz. He says as we've paved over swampy coastlines, we've changed how storm waters flow. Or, for an analogy a little closer to home: "Rain falls on your driveway it's going to run straight out into the street. Rain falls in your garden it's going to soak into the ground. When you've done that at the scale of whole watersheds, there's no place for that water to go when it rains."

But some wetlands do remain. Beck and his colleagues teamed up with the insurance industry, and, using the industry's risk assessment models, asked: how much more damage would Hurricane Sandy have delivered if all the eastern seaboard's wetlands were gone? And they found that marshy coastlines saved some $ 625 million in direct flood damages - or about one percent of Sandy's total cost.

Researchers also battered Ocean County, New Jersey, with thousands of hypothetical storms using flood models. And they found that wetlands cut flood damages there by 16 percent, compared to areas of the county where wetlands are gone. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.

Next, it's up to local governments and the insurance industry to take notice. "Certainly we hope that we will continue to conserve wetlands in part for their intrinsic beauty and the importance of nature." But he says by putting a price-tag on the economic benefit of wetlands, it might change the conversation about conservation.

Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.