Marnie Chesterton

That made us think, okay, where are these nutrient sources coming from and how are they actually getting to those mid-latitudes? So biopole has been mostly about trying to pinpoint, to track and trace, what are those key sources of nutrients in the polar regions?

Joten olemme katsoneet säästöjä glasioista, rikkoista ja maasta, sekä ympäristöjärjestelmistä, jotka tapahtuvat molemmissa tuollaisissa maissa, ja myös maan isoa. Ja sitten meillä on tämä maailmanlaajuisen kulutusjärjestelmä, ja sitten se käy ympäri maailmaa, jatkuvasti, jos haluat, ympäristössä, ja sitten takaisin puolueille taas.

So there's this conveyor that's able to take those nutrients all the way around the globe. To me you're painting a picture of the poles being this kind of the fridge of the oceans, the place where all the food comes from. Exactly right. So that's the overview. What are the holes in the data that you're looking to fill?

One of the processes that we're really interested in is the way in which zooplankton are able to take carbon down to depth. So we have some really nice data from the Arctic that there are a particular species, a group of animals called copepods, which in the polar regions have a really nifty way of dealing with that wintertime dilemma of carbon.

no food in the water column and predators around. So they feed really happily on phytoplankton, those marine microscopic plants, in the summertime. And then they take all of the carbon that's bound up within the phytoplankton from their photosynthesis and turn that into a carbon-rich fat sack in their body. And if we imagine that the biomass of these copepods

Ympäri maailmaa se on noin 10 kaksi ihmisen biomassia. Ja sitten kun keskustelu edistyy, ne mennävät läpi 1500 metriä ja pysyvät veden kolmessa lähellä heidän hengityksensä, jossa he pysyvät ja levitävät tuon karbonin, jonka he sijaitsevat sivustolle.

into the ocean. So what we're trying to understand is how many of these copepods are there, where are they distributed, and how much carbon are they capable of taking to depth. We have data for the Arctic on these species, but we have absolutely nothing

No information on them in the Antarctic. And already we think that for the Arctic alone, that this process of taking carbon down to depth or sequestration as it's called, could be in the order of two to three times that of the Amazon.

Those are stonking numbers, given that the Amazons, you know, known as the lungs of the world and, you know, there's all of the stuff about them breathing in the carbon dioxide. So actually more is going on at the Antarctic, you think?

Kyllä. Joten sinulla on kuvia, ympäristöä ympäristöä, jota useimmat ihmiset eivät koskaan näe. Mietin, mitä näet ympäristössä. Oletko nähnyt mitään niitä isoja jäätöjä, jotka ovat ruokaneet?

Wow, yeah, we have been incredibly lucky. We've seen not one, not two, but three icebergs. And they are vast. I think the first one that we saw was about 76 kilometers long and about 45 kilometers wide.

Ja sitten seuraavassa kurssissa me tuli A23a. Kun sinä olet laittamassa, niin sieltä ja oikeastaan näkyy vain irti. Se kuulostaa ihanaa. Ja myös hieman hauskaa, koska se on kilometrejä irti, jotka tulevat sinuun, eikö? Kyllä, se on hauskaa. Ja sinun täytyy pysähtyä vähemmän irti, koska jos jotain jää pois...

You've got a tsunami that can come towards you or the ice can come back up and hit the ship. I think it was a really surreal moment the first time that we came across the A-23, because there we were standing on the Sedeved Attenborough ship with this iconic, amazing person embodied in the ship. And by the way, he also appears on the tannoy.

Joten joskus kuulee hänen ääntänsä sanoa, että huomioon, että siellä tulee vene. Se on melko surullista. Ja sinä olet niin, että se on hyvä. Se on David. Se on hyvin rauhoittavaa. Se on mahtavaa. Mutta kun me olimme paikallaan paikallaan katsomassa tämän ison. Se oli tämä surullinen momentti. Täällä me ollaan paikallaan paikallaan tämän ikonisen henkilön kanssa. Paikallaan tämän mahtavan näkökulman.

and a pod of orcas just appeared. And they were swimming in front of the iceberg. And the iceberg has these beautiful cave systems in front of them. And then you have these gorgeous black and white glistening bodies just bobbing around, playing in the waves. Yeah, really surreal. I feel like I'm talking to someone who really loves her job, which is great. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Marni. It's been an absolute pleasure.

So, inspired by Sir David Attenborough, we've discovered why some people get to blow out the candles on their 100th birthday cake. We've found out about a jellyfish that never gets old, and we've just heard about what it's like to live on Sir David Attenborough.

Still to come on the show, we'll be unwrapping the science behind landslide prediction, we'll be finding out about the speed of sight, and I'll be discovering what new research on edge species has to do with Sir David. Stay with us.

This is Unexpected Elements from the BBC World Service. I'm Marni Chasterton in Cardiff in the UK. And this week I'm joined by... Chavi Sachdev in Mumbai, India. And... Tristan Atone in Helsinki, Finland.

This week we are mainly marvelling at David Attenborough's 100th birthday. Happy birthday Sir David. But in this show we always make space for a story that might have received fewer headlines than the birthday of Britons. I'd say favourite person. I think it might be.

Chavi, you are up this week. What have you got? So this is under the radar, story that hasn't got the headlines. And as you may know, I will give you a totally arbitrary bonus, extra big piece of birthday cake if you can link it to David Attenborough.