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It's late in the night when the scientists leading the expedition decide to sample the ocean off the Getz Ice Shelf.
深夜时分，领导这次探险的科学家们决定对盖兹冰架附近的海洋进行采样。
They've found a good spot where the current of warm water entering and leaving the ice shelf is strong.
他们找到了一个好地方，那里流进和流出冰架的暖流很强。
Sleepy researchers with red eyes awaken to deploy their instruments at sea.
双眼通红、困意正盛的研究人员起床把仪器部署在海上。
They are used to working around the clock and often subsisting on very short naps.
他们习惯了昼夜不停地工作，并且经常靠很短的午睡来维持体能。
They use different tools to collect the water.
他们使用不同的工具收集海水。
The main one, a rosette, is a large carousel-shaped frame encircled with a number of long plastic bottles.
一个主要工具是玫瑰形的容器，它是一个大型的旋转木马形状的框架，周围环绕着许多长长的塑料瓶。
After the instrument is lowered into the sea on a cable, the bottles are opened and closed to collect water at different depths-more than 4,000 meters below the surface.
通过缆绳把仪器放入海中后，会控制瓶子的开关，以收集不同深度的海水--深达海下4000多米处。
This allows scientists to see what is going on in different layers of the ocean.
这能让科学家观测到海洋不同深度的情况。
Up to 10 meters. Roger, 10.
上升10米。收到，10米。
Once the rosette is back on deck, a group of researchers wearing orange float coats, helmets and steel-toe boots is ready to pick up the bottles and take them to onboard labs.
等玫瑰形容器抵达海面后，一群身穿橙色浮力外套、头戴头盔、脚穿钢头靴的研究人员就准备好取下瓶子并将它们带到船上的实验室。
A float coat, by the way, is a jacket thick enough for the cold that has a built-in device to keep a person afloat if they fall into the water.
顺便说一下，浮力外套是一种特别厚的防寒夹克，内置一个装置，如果人掉进水里，可以保持漂浮状态。
It is 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the wind, but that doesn't make the researchers less enthusiastic to work.
风中的温度只有1.5华氏度（约零下17摄氏度），但这并没有降低研究人员的工作热情。
Three, two, one: bottles!
三，二，一：瓶子！
This is the most comprehensive scientific expedition sampling for iron and other chemical elements in this part of West Antarctica.
这是南极洲西部这部分地区对铁和其他化学元素进行的最全面的科学考察采样。
But even if the Amundsen Sea has more iron than other places, measuring it is still no easy task.
但是，即使阿蒙森海的铁含量比其他地方高，测量它仍然并非易事。
To do it, these scientists need a lot of water.
为此，这些科学家需要大量的海水。
On this cruise alone they are processing around 100,000 gallons of seawater.
仅在这次巡航中，他们就处理了大约10万加仑的海水。
You don't have to be a chemist to see that these waters are nutritious for phytoplankton.
就算你不是化学家，也能看出这些水域对浮游植物很有营养。
The sea around us is green and smells like rotten lettuce because it is covered in algal blooms.
我们周围的海水是绿色的，闻起来像腐烂的生菜，因为它被水华覆盖着。
Remember when I said this expedition will also help us better understand climate change?
还记得我说过这次探险也会帮助我们更好地了解气候变化吗？
It turns out that those rotten-lettuce-smelling algal blooms are not only important for the food web but also fundamental for global climate regulation.
事实证明，那些散发着烂生菜气味的藻华不仅对食物网很重要，而且对全球气候调节也至关重要。
Phytoplankton rely on photosynthesis to produce energy.
浮游植物依靠光合作用来产生能量。
Through this process they absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the carbon is incorporated into their cells.
通过这个过程，它们从大气中吸收大量的二氧化碳，碳被纳入它们的细胞中。
It's just like how trees store carbon in their wood and leaves.
就像树木在木枝和树叶中储存碳一样。
Nicole Coffey is a doctoral student onboard the ship. She studies algae at the University of Minnesota.
尼科尔·科菲是船上的一名博士生。她在明尼苏达大学研究藻类。
It's like us to plants on land: So it's food for other organisms.
就像我们对陆地上的植物一样:藻类是其他生物的食物。
It's drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, and it's making oxygen for other things to breathe.
它从大气中吸收碳，同时制造氧气供其他生物呼吸。
Carbon dioxide that human activities release into the atmosphere is the main contributor to global warming.
人类活动释放到大气中的二氧化碳是全球变暖的主要原因。
So with more iron making its way into the Amundsen Sea, phytoplankton thrive and multiply-or, to use the science jargon, they become “highly productive”-removing more carbon from the air and potentially causing a cooling effect.
因此，随着更多的铁进入阿蒙森海，浮游植物会茁壮成长并繁殖--或者用科学术语来说，它们变得“高产”--从空气中吸收更多的碳，由此可能产生降温效果。
It's sort of a little bit of what we call a negative feedback.
这有点像我们所说的负反馈。
So as climate change occurs because of human introduction of CO2 into the atmosphere, to the degree that that causes Antarctic melting, if those glaciers bring more iron into the Amundsen Sea, for example, you could get more productivity and locally draw down CO2.
人类向大气中排放二氧化碳，导致气候变化，并在一定程度上导致了南极冰川的融化。如果这些冰川将更多的铁带入阿蒙森海，那么藻类的生产力可能会提高，并降低当地的二氧化碳水平。
So it's a little bit of a counterbalancing effect, possibly, to climate change.
所以这可能对气候变化有一点平衡作用。
But Rob is conservative about the potential scale of this effect.
但是罗布对这种效应的潜在规模持保守态度。
Honestly, the Amundsen Sea is not big enough to have a global effect.
老实说，阿蒙森海的面积不够大，不足以对全球产生影响。
Phoebe sees it differently.
菲比则持不同意见。
She thinks the increased iron in the Amundsen Sea could play an important role in global climate as glacial melting accelerates.
她认为，随着冰川融化的加速，阿蒙森海铁含量的增加可能会对全球气候产生重要影响。
She says this would be especially true if the iron added to the Amundsen Sea spreads out to the vast Southern Ocean.
她说，如果增加到阿蒙森海的铁扩散到广阔的南大洋，那就更会如此了。
The Southern Ocean is iron-deprived and also naturally emits a lot of carbon.
南大洋缺铁，而且还会自然排放大量的碳。
