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

翻译人员: Wanting Zhong 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

Can you guess what this is?

你能猜到这是什么吗？

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

你相信有个地方的生物 都是由玻璃做成的吗？

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

你相信有些生命体我们肉眼看不见、

but astronauts see them all the time?

但宇航员却一直能看见吗？

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

这些看不见的玻璃生物并不是 遥远的系外星球上的外星生命。

They're diatoms:

它们是硅藻：

photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen

一种能进行光合作用的单细胞藻类， 负责产生氧气、

and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale

也能帮助全球各地进行人工降雨，

and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of --

雕琢精巧的几何形外壁的成分是——

yeah, glass.

没错，玻璃。

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

从太空中，你能看到它们形成的 与海面颜色交融的旋涡。

And when they die,

而当它们死去时，

它们的玻璃小屋沉入大海深处，

their glass houses sink to the depths of the oceans,

taking carbon out of the air

抽出空气中的碳

and with them to the grave,

一起带进坟墓，

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

对海洋中的碳固定 做出了相当可观的贡献。

We live on an alien planet.

我们住在一个外星般奇异的星球上。

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

地球上有这么多 奇特的生命可以研究，

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

其中又有那么多住在世界的边缘、

of our sight and of our understanding.

人类视野和知识的边界。

One of those edges is Antarctica.

其中一隅就是南极洲。

提起南极洲，我们一般会想到

Typically, when we think about Antarctica,

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

一片荒芜贫瘠、死气沉沉的土地……

except for a few penguins.

除了几只企鹅。

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

但南极洲其实应该被称为 极地的生命绿洲，

host to countless creatures that are utterly fascinating.

是无数令人着迷的生物的乐园。

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

那我们为什么没有在 最新的自然纪录片中见过它们呢？

Well, they lurk beneath the snow and ice,

那是因为它们潜藏在冰雪之下，

virtually invisible to us.

本质上是对我们隐形的。

They're microbes:

它们是微生物：

tiny plants and animals living embedded inside of glaciers,

在冰川深处和海冰下面生活、

在冰下湖泊里游动的

underneath the sea ice

and swimming in subglacial ponds.

微小的植物和动物。

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

它们的魅力绝对不输于

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

你常在自然纪录片里 见到的巨型动物。

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

但你该如何鼓励人们 去探索他们看不见的生物呢？

I recently led a five-week expedition to Antarctica

我最近带队进行了一次 为期五周的南极考察，

to essentially become a wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale.

基本上成为了 一名微观野生生物影片导演。

With 185 pounds of gear,

我带着近 85 公斤的装备

I boarded a military aircraft

登上了军用飞机，

and brought microscopes into the field

把显微镜带到实地观测，

to film and investigate these microscopic extremophiles,

来拍摄并研究这些 微观的 “嗜极生物”，

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

希望能更加熟悉 这个与我们共存于地球上、

that we live with here on Earth.

却几乎不为我们所知的生态系统。

To film these invisible creatures in action,

为了拍摄这些 看不见的生物的活动，

I needed to see where they call home --

我需要探访它们的家——

I needed to venture under the ice.

我必须到冰下去冒险。

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

每年，海冰都能让南极洲的面积 增加差不多一倍。

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

为了到近三米厚的冰层下一窥究竟，

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

我顺着一根插进海冰的 长金属管爬下去，

to witness a hidden ecosystem full of life,

悬停在海床和明亮的冰屋顶间，

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

目睹了一个藏在那里的 生机盎然的生态系统。

Here's what that looked like from the outside.

这是从外面看上去的样子。

It was just absolutely magical.

绝对是一次神奇的体验。

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

我发现的生物包括了 令人赏心悦目的介形虫，

and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms.

还有更多美丽的、 呈规则几何形状的硅藻。

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

接下来我深入野外， 在麦克默多干谷（Dry Valleys）

扎营了几个星期。

for a couple of weeks.

98 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice

南极洲 98% 都覆盖着冰，

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

而麦克默多干谷是南极洲

what the continent itself looks like underneath all of it.

最大的一块能看到陆地的区域。

I sampled bacteria at Blood Falls,

我在血瀑布采集细菌，

a natural phenomenon of a subglacial pond spurting out iron oxide

这个自然景观是由冰下湖泊 喷出铁氧化物形成的，

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

直到十几年前， 这里一直被认为是不毛之地。

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

我登上了一座冰川， 往冰下钻孔之后，

revealing countless, hardcore critters living their best lives

发现了在一层层冰中 过着怡然生活的

while embedded inside layers of ice.

无数硬核生物。

Known as cryoconite holes,

这些 “冰尘穴”

they form when tiny pieces of darkly colored dirt

是由被吹到冰川上的

get blown onto the glacier

小片暗色灰尘形成的，

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

它们融化出盛满“汤”的小洞， 表面随后冻结，

preserving hundreds of dirt pucks inside the glacier,

在冰川内部留存了数百个 灰尘做的 “冰壶”，

like little island universes

就像小小的岛屿宇宙一样，

each with its own unique ecosystem.

每个都有自己独特的生态系统。

Some of the critters I found you may recognize,

你可能认识我发现的一些生物，

like this adorable tardigrade --

比如这只可爱的缓步类动物——

I absolutely love them,

我特别喜爱它们，

they're like little gummy bears with claws.

它们就像长了爪子的 迷你小熊软糖。

Also known as a water bear,

它们也被叫做 “水熊虫”，

they're famous for possessing superpowers

因拥有“超能力”而闻名——

that allow them to survive in extreme conditions,

它们能在极端条件下存活，

including the vacuum of space.

甚至包括太空的真空。

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

但你不需要上太空， 甚至不用到南极就能找到它们。

They live in moss all over this planet,

它们住在全球各地的苔藓中，

from sidewalk cracks to parks.

从人行道的缝隙到公园里。

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

你可能每天都会路过 好几吨这种看不见的动物。

Others may look familiar,

其它生物可能看着眼熟，

but be stranger still, like nematodes.

但更加古怪，比如线虫动物。

Not a snake nor an earthworm,

它们不是蛇也不是蚯蚓，

nematodes are a creature all of their own.

而是单独一门动物。

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

它们无法像蚯蚓一样再生， 也不能像蛇一样爬行，

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

但它们嘴里长了细小的、 匕首一样的针，

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

有的会被用来叉进猎物、吸食内脏。

For every single human on this planet,

这颗星球上每一个人

there exist 57 billion nematodes.

都对应着 570 亿条线虫动物。

And some of the critters you may not recognize at all

有些生物你们可能根本不认识，

but live out equally fascinating lives,

但它们过着同样精彩的生活：

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

比如轮形动物，戴着奇妙的、 能变成扫地机器人样的嘴的头冠；

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

纤毛虫的消化系统透明得 简直是信息量太大了 [ 图示：“便便！” ]；

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

还有蓝细菌，看上去就像是 在培养皿里炸开的拉炮彩纸屑。

A lot of times what we see in popular media

在大众媒体中，我们经常看到，

are scanning electron microscope images of microorganisms

微生物的扫描电镜图像

看着就像可怕的怪物一样。

looking like scary monsters.

Without seeing them move their lives remain elusive to us

如果看不到它们行动， 它们的生活就仍旧难以捉摸，

despite them living nearly everywhere we step outside.

——尽管它们就住在 我们涉足的几乎所有地方。

What's their daily life like?

它们的日常生活是怎样的？

How do they interact with their environment?

它们是如何与环境互动的？

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

如果你只看过 动物园里企鹅的照片，

却从没看过企鹅蹒跚而行、 随后在冰上滑翔而过，

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

you wouldn't fully understand penguins.

那你就无法完全了解企鹅。

By seeing microcreatures in motion,

通过观察微生物的动态，

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

我们就能更好地了解 这些看不见的生命。

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

如果没有记录下 南极洲和自家后院的隐形生命，

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

我们就无法了解自己 究竟在和多少生物共享这个世界。

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

而这意味着我们仍然没有看到

of our weird and whimsical home planet.

我们光怪陆离的星球家园的全貌。

Thank you.

谢谢。