The invisible life hidden beneath Antarctica's ice | Ariel Waldman

Translator: Reviewer: Mario Cal

Can you guess what this is?

Sabedes o que é isto?

What if I told you there's a place where the creatures are made of glass?

E se vos digo que hai lugares onde existen criaturas de vidro?

Or that there are life-forms that are invisible to us,

Ou que existen formas de vida invisibles aos nosos ollos,

but astronauts see them all the time?

pero que os astronautas ven constantemente?

These invisible glass creatures aren't aliens on a faraway exoplanet.

Estas criaturas de vidro non son alieníxenas dun exoplaneta.

They're diatoms:

Son diatomeas:

photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen

algas fotosintéticas unicelulares que producen osíxeno

and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale

e axudan á sementeira de nubes a escala planetaria,

and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of --

con exoesqueletos xeométricos intricadamente esculpidos en...

yeah, glass.

exacto, vidro.

You can see them in swirls of ocean-surface colors from space.

Podemos velos en espirais dende o espazo nas cores da superficie do océano.

And when they die,

E cando morren,

as súas casas de vidro afúndense nas profundidades,

their glass houses sink to the depths of the oceans,

taking carbon out of the air

tomando carbono do aire,

and with them to the grave,

levándoo con elas á tumba,

accounting for a significant amount of carbon sequestration in the oceans.

logrando así a retención nos océanos dunha porción significativa de carbono.

We live on an alien planet.

Vivimos nun planeta extraterrestre.

Hai moitas formas de vida estrañas que estudar, aquí na Terra,

There is so much weird life here on Earth to study,

and so much of it lives at the edges of our world,

e moitas viven nos confíns do noso mundo,

da nosa vista e do noso entendemento.

of our sight and of our understanding.

One of those edges is Antarctica.

Un destes confíns é a Antártida.

Typically, when we think about Antarctica,

Cando pensamos na Antártida

we think of a place that's barren and lifeless ...

pensamos nun sitio deserto e sen vida...

except for a few penguins.

excepto por uns cantos pingüíns.

But Antarctica should instead be known as a polar oasis of life,

Pero a Antártida debería considerarse como un oasis de vida polar,

host to countless creatures that are utterly fascinating.

fogar de infindas criaturas fascinantes.

So why haven't we seen them on the latest nature documentary?

Entón, por que non as vemos nos documentais sobre a natureza?

Well, they lurk beneath the snow and ice,

Agáchanse baixo a neve e o xeo,

virtually invisible to us.

son virtualmente invisibles.

They're microbes:

Son microbios:

tiny plants and animals living embedded inside of glaciers,

diminutas plantas e animais dentro dos glaciares,

underneath the sea ice

baixo o xeo do mar

and swimming in subglacial ponds.

nadando en estanques subglaciares.

And they're no less charismatic than any of the megafauna

E son tan encantadores como calquera megafauna

that you're used to seeing in a nature documentary.

que podemos ver nun documental sobre a natureza.

But how do you compel people to explore what they can't see?

Pero como convencer á xente de que explore o que non pode ver?

I recently led a five-week expedition to Antarctica

Veño de dirixir unha expedición de cinco semanas á Antártida

to essentially become a wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale.

para gravar a fauna de escala microbiana.

With 185 pounds of gear,

Con 84 kg de equipo,

I boarded a military aircraft

subín a unha aeronave militar

and brought microscopes into the field

con algúns miscroscopios

para gravar e investigar estes extremófilos microscópicos,

to film and investigate these microscopic extremophiles,

so that we can become more familiar with a poorly understood ecosystem

para familiarizarnos cun ecosistema moi pouco coñecido

that we live with here on Earth.

co cal convivimos na Terra.

Para gravar estas criaturas invisibles en plena acción,

To film these invisible creatures in action,

I needed to see where they call home --

precisaba ver a súa casa.

I needed to venture under the ice.

Tiña que ir baixo o xeo.

Every year, the sea ice nearly doubles the entire size of Antarctica.

Cada ano, o xeo do mar case dobra o tamaño de toda a Antártida.

To get a glimpse below the nine-feet-thick ice,

Para ollar baixo 3 metros de xeo,

I climbed down a long, metal tube inserted into the sea ice

baixei por un longo tubo de metal inserido na capa de xeo

to witness a hidden ecosystem full of life,

para poder ser testemuña dun ecosistema agochado e cheo de vida,

while being suspended between the seafloor and the illuminated ceiling of ice.

suspendida entre o chan marino e o teito de xeo iluminado.

Here's what that looked like from the outside.

Así se vía desde fóra.

It was just absolutely magical.

Foi máxico.

Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp

Atopei fermosas criaturas como os ostrácodos

and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms.

e moitas, máis fermosas, diatomeas xeométricas.

I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys

Logo afasteime para acampar nos Vales Secos de McMurdo

for a couple of weeks.

durante dúas semanas.

98 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice

O 98% da Antártida está cuberta de xeo

and the Dry Valleys are the largest area of Antarctica where you can actually see

e os Vales Secos é o lugar máis grande da Antártida onde se pode ver

what the continent itself looks like underneath all of it.

como é o continente por debaixo.

I sampled bacteria at Blood Falls,

Tomei mostras de bacterias nas Cataratas de Sangue,

a natural phenomenon of a subglacial pond spurting out iron oxide

un fenómeno natural que fai abrollar óxido de ferro

en estanques subglaciares

that was thought to be utterly lifeless until a little more than a decade ago.

que críamos sen vida ata hai algo máis dunha década.

And I hiked up a glacier to drill down into it,

E subín por un glaciar para meterme dentro

revealing countless, hardcore critters living their best lives

e atopar moitísimas criaturas vivindo tranquilas

while embedded inside layers of ice.

dentro das capas de xeo.

Known as cryoconite holes,

Son as crioconitas.

they form when tiny pieces of darkly colored dirt

Fórmanse cando partículas de terra escura

get blown onto the glacier

se depositan sobre o glaciar e comezan a derretelo,

and begin to melt down into soupy holes that then freeze over,

formando buratos caldosos que se volven conxelar

preserving hundreds of dirt pucks inside the glacier,

e conservan no interior centos de discos de terra,

like little island universes

como pequenos universos illados

each with its own unique ecosystem.

con cadanseu ecosistema único.

Quizais recoñezades algunhas criaturas que atopei,

Some of the critters I found you may recognize,

like this adorable tardigrade --

como este adorable tardígrado.

Encántanme.

I absolutely love them,

Son como osiños de gominola con gadoupas.

they're like little gummy bears with claws.

Also known as a water bear,

Tamén chamados osos de auga,

they're famous for possessing superpowers

coñécense por teren superpoderes

that allow them to survive in extreme conditions,

que lles permiten sobrevivir en condicións extremas,

including the vacuum of space.

incluso o baleiro do espazo.

Pero non fai falla ir ao espazo ou mesmo á Antártida para atopalos.

But you don't need to travel to space or even Antarctica to find them.

They live in moss all over this planet,

Viven no musgo de todo o planeta,

desde as gretas da beirarrúa ata os parques.

from sidewalk cracks to parks.

You likely walk right by tons of these invisible animals every day.

Seguro que pasades ao pé de toneladas destes animais invisibles todos os días.

Others may look familiar,

Outros soaranvos, pero son aínda máis estraños,

but be stranger still, like nematodes.

como os nematodos.

Not a snake nor an earthworm,

Non son serpes nin miñocas.

nematodes are a creature all of their own.

Os nematodos son criaturas distintas.

They can't regenerate like an earthworm or crawl like a snake,

Non poden rexenerarse coma unha miñoca ou reptar coma unha serpe,

pero teñen pequenas agullas afiadas na boca

but they have tiny, dagger-like needles inside their mouths

coas que algúns arpoan as súas presas e succionan o seu interior.

that some of them use to spearfish their prey and suck out the insides.

For every single human on this planet,

Por cada humano neste planeta,

there exist 57 billion nematodes.

existen 57.000 millóns de nematodos.

And some of the critters you may not recognize at all

Se cadra non recoñecedes todas estas criaturas,

pero as súas vidas son igual de fascinantes.

but live out equally fascinating lives,

Como os rotíferos,

such as rotifers with amazing crowns that turn into Roomba-like mouths,

cuxa incrible coroa se converte nunha boca como un robot aspiradora;

os cilióforos, cun sistema digestivo transparente que evitarei detallar;

ciliates with digestive systems so transparent that it's almost TMI,

and cyanobacteria that look like party confetti exploded all over a petri dish.

Ou as cianobacterias, que semellan confeti estrado nunha placa de Petri.

A lot of times what we see in popular media

Moitas veces, o que vemos nos medios

are scanning electron microscope images of microorganisms

son imaxes de microscopio electrónico

de microorganismos de aspecto monstruoso.

looking like scary monsters.

Without seeing them move their lives remain elusive to us

Se non os vemos en movemento, a súa vida escápanos por completo,

despite them living nearly everywhere we step outside.

aínda que viven ao noso redor.

What's their daily life like?

Como é o seu día a día?

How do they interact with their environment?

Como interactúan con seu entorno?

If you only ever saw a photo of a penguin at a zoo,

Se só vísedes unha foto dun pingüín no zoo,

sen velo nunca andar bambeando e logo deslizándose polo xeo,

but you never saw one waddle around and then glide over ice,

you wouldn't fully understand penguins.

non chegaríades a entender ben os pingüíns.

By seeing microcreatures in motion,

Vendo microcriaturas en movemento,

comprenderemos mellor formas de vida que, doutro xeito, serían invisibles.

we gain better insights into the lives of the otherwise invisible.

Without documenting the invisible life in Antarctica and our own backyards,

Se non documentamos a vida invisible na Antártida e no noso patio,

we don't understand just how many creatures we share our world with.

non entenderemos con cantas criaturas compartimos o noso mundo.

Iso significa que aínda non temos unha imaxe completa

And that means we don't yet have the full picture

of our weird and whimsical home planet.

do noso estraño e extravagante planeta.

Thank you.

Grazas.