WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:03.839 Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio I. To day, I 2 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:09.759 will be reading National Geographic magazine dated February twenty twenty six, 3 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:13.800 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.800 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:19.480 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:24.000 printed material. Please join me now for the first continuation 7 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:27.399 of the article I began last time, entitled can the 8 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:33.159 Basilica that inspired Notre Dame Return to Glory? This article 9 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:38.320 by Robert Kunzig. Until he retired in twenty twenty four, 10 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:42.359 Moolain was one of several dozen chief architects of historic 11 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:46.600 monuments in France who oversee restoration projects at hundreds of 12 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:51.079 historic sites. He worked on the Chateau of Fontainebleau and 13 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:54.520 the gardens of Versailles, as well as San Denis, where 14 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.679 he restored the west facade and the stained glass. The 15 00:00:57.719 --> 00:00:59.600 way he tells it, the story of how the church 16 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:03.359 lost its steeple is a slightly sordid one. It's a 17 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.439 tale of the harshness of men and what he calls 18 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.879 the original crime committed by France's vaunted Monument's Service, the 19 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:15.879 agency to which Mooloan himself devoted his career. Sandini is 20 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.120 named for the first Bishop of Paris, a third century 21 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:23.920 martyr who was decapitated for preaching the Gospel to skeptical Parisians. 22 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:28.959 According to legend, Dennis picked up his own severed head 23 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.959 and walked with it four miles north to what became 24 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.959 his grave site. By the sixth century, a small church 25 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.640 stood above the grave, and by the twelfth century the 26 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:41.640 church was part of a prestigious abbey and crowded with pilgrims. 27 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.959 That's when it underwent a crucial transformation at the hands 28 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:49.959 of a visionary abbot named Suget. In just over a 29 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.680 decade from roughly eleven thirty to eleven forty four, Suget 30 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:59.239 dramatically expanded the building, adding a massive and richly decorated 31 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.799 facade to the way front and a Gothic apse to 32 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:05.000 the east end. His choices were a bold departure from 33 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.879 the darkness of the prevailing Romanesque style, with its massive 34 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:13.000 walls and small windows. Souget believed that beauty in this 35 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:18.319 world could transport people to a higher one, and that 36 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.520 sunlight flooding into sun Denis would show the way to 37 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:25.319 the true light, that is to God. His vision survived 38 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:29.639 intact for nearly seven centuries, but on June ninth, eighteen 39 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:34.039 thirty seven, lightning ripped through the Sandinese fire, piercing three 40 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:38.159 large holes, including one more than six feet high, as 41 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.919 the bolt jumped to a nearby building and exploded a gargoyle. 42 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:45.960 Within a year of the storm, Francois Debray, an architect 43 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:50.000 who had been restoring Sundynys since eighteen thirteen, had dismantled 44 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:53.560 and rebuilt the spire. The Monuments Service, though, which had 45 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:57.560 been established in eighteen thirty, didn't thank him. What its 46 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:02.120 ambitious leaders really wanted, Leniold has found was to take 47 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:06.400 control of one of France's most coveted restoration projects. To 48 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.479 do that, they had to oust the old guard Debray. 49 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:12.879 In eighteen forty five, when a series of storms again 50 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.840 damaged the steeple, the Service blamed the weight of Debray's 51 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.800 restored spire wrongly, according to Moulan, Debray was forced to 52 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:24.560 dismantle it. Then they replaced the sixty nine year old 53 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:28.039 pioneer with their hand picked thirty two year old Fenomme 54 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:33.199 Eugene Manuel Bruila le Duc, who had just begun a 55 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:37.240 two decade long restoration of Notre Dame. Boiles le Duc 56 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:41.520 dismantled the tower under the spire too, saying he intended 57 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:45.319 to rebuild the whole steeple. Instead, he sold off the stones. 58 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.840 Boiles Le Duc hated debray Leniold says that's clear San 59 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:54.680 Deni was their battleground, Mulan has argued, and the steeple 60 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:59.560 paid the price. Bourles le Duc's own status as a 61 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:03.560 pioneer in the monument's service is unassailable. His restoration of 62 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:07.319 Notre Dame was masterful, albeit with many additions of his own, 63 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:11.319 including the gargoyles and a new spire. Nor is there 64 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:16.399 any disputing the service's tremendous work preserving France's rich heritage, 65 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.560 But especially in the past half century or so, its 66 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:23.680 doctrine has evolved, and Mulon believes gotten too rigid and 67 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:28.519 too devoted to restoring monuments only to their last documented state, 68 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:33.199 preserving changes made through their previous history, but adding as 69 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:37.879 few new ones as possible. Consider how Fidipe Villeneuve, chief 70 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.879 architect of historic monuments at Notre Dame, described the restoration 71 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.040 he led after the twenty nineteenth fire. We leave no 72 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:50.759 trace of our passage. Moolah favors a more interventionist approach, 73 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:53.879 and from the start his plan to rebuild Debray's spire 74 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:58.040 at San Deini has faced blowback. In twenty seventeen, when 75 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.920 he first presented the plan, national Commission on Historic Monuments 76 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:05.600 rejected it, arguing that San Deni's steeple had been gone 77 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:10.360 so long its absence had become part of the church's history. 78 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:13.759 Rebuilding it now, the Commission said, would be problematic in 79 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:19.199 terms of the authenticity and materiality of the monument. The 80 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:24.360 monument's commission as well respected, but its opinions our only advisory, 81 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:29.279 and by twenty twenty one, two successive presidential administrations had 82 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.360 endorsed the project and the Culture Ministry had authorized it. 83 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:37.879 That's when the national newsweekly Laponte published a letter of 84 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:41.759 outrage opposition signed by one hundred twenty eight experts. The 85 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:44.720 Basilica of San Denis doesn't need a spire, it began. 86 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:48.920 Matieur le Jeune, a young historian who did his pH 87 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.120 d on Gothic spires, was one of the petition's two 88 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.720 co authors and remains opposed to the project. It's an 89 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:59.839 intact monument. He said last spring, shortly after construction began 90 00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:04.079 and its being denatured just to build a Neo Gothic spire. 91 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:08.120 The city government seized the steeple as an economic development 92 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:14.040 project that will help revitalize the city center. Nicholas Matijad's Josik, 93 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:19.480 director of Souavese La Fleche follow the Spire, the non 94 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:22.920 profit that's managing the project, predicts it will double annual 95 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:26.360 attendance to around three hundred thousand, still only a tiny 96 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:30.360 fraction of the twelve million expected at Notre Dame this year. 97 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.920 One afternoon in May, on top of the Basilica, architect 98 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:37.800 Christophe Boltineau knelt down on what's left of the front 99 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:41.839 wall of the North tower. With Moulal now retired, Bolteneau 100 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.439 fifty sixth has taken over the project. He was examining 101 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:47.480 one of the first new stones to be added to 102 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:50.600 the wall, and he wasn't happy. Its top service was 103 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:55.399 perfectly smooth. The optic authenticity he and Moulan are aiming 104 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:58.079 for in the new towers a matter not just of 105 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:04.399 historical documentation documentation, but also of craftsmanship. Mulon is dismayed 106 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.279 by what he perceives as the shoddy work of some 107 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:12.000 restoration projects. I've seen horrors, he says. Among the most 108 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:17.120 common building stones cut by mechanized saw into perfect rectangular blocks, 109 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:20.240 then distressed with a power tool to make the visible 110 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:23.759 face look old. This method was used even at Notre 111 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:27.879 Dame after the twenty nineteen fire. It off fends Mulam. 112 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.879 Medieval church builders carved every block by hand, and they 113 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:35.399 wasted no energy on things no one could see. They 114 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:39.360 put a final smooth finish only on a block's visible face. 115 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.360 The back faced inside the hollow wall, so they'd leave 116 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.680 it lumpy and unformed. Then they'd roughly shape the fore 117 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.800 sides with a large chisel and join them by mortar 118 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:55.040 to neighboring blocks. The irregular blocks create a visual effect 119 00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:59.120 of vibration. Batineaux calls it that is easy to distinguish 120 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:02.879 from the rulers straight joints of the machine age. He 121 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.920 and Lulon want the new tower to have that vibe. 122 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:09.199 Their goal is not to go full medieval, it's to 123 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.879 achieve the original chiseled look with practical methods available today. 124 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:17.360 Power saws are forbidden, but eighty five percent of the 125 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:20.800 fifteen thousand, two hundred stones for the new steeple will 126 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:25.800 be cut off site using handheld pneumatic chisels. The remaining 127 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:27.920 fifteen percent of the stones will be cut in the 128 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:31.600 shed at San Denis without any machines. It was a 129 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.960 gorgeous spring afternoon, five months before the construction site was 130 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:38.240 opened to the public last October, when I went up 131 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:41.919 into the scaffolding with Boutineau. A few miles south that 132 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.960 Notre Dame, crowds of tourists would be queuing on the 133 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.679 plaza waiting to get in. We looked down at the 134 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.799 square in front of San Denis. It was empty. On 135 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.879 the stone pavement. A festive graphic in blue and white 136 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:57.639 stencil outlined the shape of the missing steeple. Some day 137 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:01.240 soon the new one will cast its shadow there when 138 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:06.039 the sun rises behind it once again. Next Into the 139 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:11.799 Kingdom of Sea Horses by Lindsay Lyles. On a Bahamian 140 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:16.039 island in a landlocked lagoon, the planet's densest collection of 141 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:19.720 sea horses is offering scientists new insights into the secret 142 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:24.080 lives of one of the world's most reclusive fish. Heather 143 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:27.480 Mason was used to her quarry being much more elusive. 144 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:30.320 Sea horses are often only a few inches long, can 145 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.879 change colors like a chameleon, and rarely gather in groups. 146 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:38.879 Their ability to disappear into their habitats tropical sea grasses, mangroves, 147 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:43.000 and reefs helps keep the slow swimming, largely defenseless fish 148 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.559 from becoming an easy meal. That makes devoting a career 149 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:49.799 to studying them. As Mason, a marine ecologist of the 150 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:53.919 University of Tampa, has done for decades and exercise in patience, 151 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:57.559 but when she first snorkeled the pristine waters of Sweding's 152 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:02.200 Pond on the Bahamian island of Eluthera, she found herself 153 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:06.120 in a sea horse studded heaven. Over her first weekend 154 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:09.279 in the pond's clear blue water in twenty thirteen, she 155 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:12.440 counted sixteen sea horses, far more than the one or 156 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:15.559 two she'd be lucky to spot during multi week research 157 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:19.679 trips along the coast of the Bahamas. Immediately, Mason realized 158 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:23.159 that the mile long Sweeting's Pond was special, a safe 159 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:26.559 haven for one of the ocean's most enigmatic creatures. It 160 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.159 was life changing as someone who looks for sea horses 161 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.600 in the wild, she says, and this rare window into 162 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:37.240 their existence has revealed fascinating behaviors. Mason's life changing moment 163 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:40.639 can be traced back some seven thousand to ten thousand years. 164 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:45.360 That's when scientists estimate Sweeting's pond filled with ocean water 165 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:49.080 that filtered in from nearby Hatchet Bay, roughly one mile 166 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:53.559 east through underground cracks and holes. The land locked salt 167 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:56.840 water lagoon in turn became a fortress for brittle stars, 168 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:01.639 spider crabs, octopuses, bio luminis, sint plankton, and of course, 169 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:04.840 the sea horses, a refuge who are several of the 170 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:10.240 species regular predators, skates and rays, Tuna sharks can't possibly 171 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:13.840 break in. It's an island on an island, explains Mason. 172 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:18.240 Inside Sweeting's pond, Mason found sea horses as singular as 173 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:22.399 the body of water itself, with oddly long snouts, squat bodies, 174 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:25.679 and short tails. They differed radically from anything she had 175 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:29.320 seen since she'd begun studying the creatures in nineteen ninety. 176 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:35.120 She and her collaborator, evolutionary biologists Emily Rose, classified them 177 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:40.480 as lined sea horses Hippocampus erectus. But the sea horses 178 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.200 of Sweetings are on the path to becoming their own subspecies. 179 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:48.639 Observing so many of them in isolation offers an opportunity 180 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:52.240 to study evolution in action, as Mason puts it. But 181 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:55.960 the biggest breakthrough came in the dark. Botanist Ethan Freed, 182 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:00.919 who works for the Bahamas National Trust, the nonprofit that 183 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:04.879 manages the country's national parks, had originally learned from locals 184 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:09.919 about Sweding's seahorse population and contacted Mason after the marine 185 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:14.480 ecologist's initial visit field. Freed had an idea, what if 186 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:17.840 they explored the pond at night under a starlit sky. 187 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.399 Mason and Freed donned scuba gear with dive lights and 188 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:25.200 waded into sweetings. They could barely believe their goggled eyes. 189 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:27.519 I ran my light across the bottom, and it was 190 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:31.000 like road reflectors at night, Mason recalls. You could see 191 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:35.240 seahorses lit up everywhere. Freed describes the scene as resembling 192 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.519 a seahorse rave. On a later trip, over the course 193 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.279 of four days and nights, Mason and a research team 194 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:46.320 documented eight hundred sea horses, roughly five times as many 195 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:50.320 as they'd counted during daylight hours in the same limited area. 196 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.679 Some were just a few days old. A surprise as tiny, 197 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:57.960 jubilant juveniles are rarely seen, and little is known about 198 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.759 what happens to newborn sea horses in the wild. Most 199 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.039 striking was the difference in the fish's behavior. During the day. 200 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.000 The sea horses are face down, their cryptic their hiding, 201 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.919 Mason says, and at night they come up higher in 202 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:15.559 the vegetation, so they're upright and obvious that nighttime. Rave. 203 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.879 As Freed puts, it doesn't necessarily mean all sea horses 204 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.200 are nocturnal. Sweetings is isolated and its sea horses behavior 205 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:27.320 may be unique. Nor does the research team understand why 206 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.519 these sea horses spend their days face down, though it's 207 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:35.159 possibly possible their testing resting after a night of eating 208 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.360 plankton and small crustaceans or hiding from birds that feed 209 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:42.960 on them in shallow waters. Still, the overnight survey and 210 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:46.799 subsequent research resulted in the first published paper on sea 211 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:50.840 horses nocturnal lives. In twenty twenty three. The team reported 212 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:54.519 that Sweeting's pond is home to the highest known density 213 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:58.320 of sea horses in the world, a number in the thousands. 214 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:01.039 At the time of the Dark of Night discoveries, the 215 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:04.080 pond was still open to the public but Mason's years 216 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:08.600 of research helped the Bahamas National Trust petition the Bahamian 217 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:12.519 government for protection. Two years ago, Sweeting's Pond became part 218 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:16.399 of the newly created Seahorse National Park, a preserve that 219 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:20.879 spans five hundred forty eight acres and includes Hatchet Bay Cave, 220 00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:24.039 one of the longest dry cave systems in the Bahamas. 221 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:26.960 The park closed the pup to the public a few 222 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.879 months later, and the Trust now raises funds and prioritizes 223 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:37.159 conservation over access. Macemills still pluming the data she collected 224 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:39.799 over a decade and hopes to return to the pond 225 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:44.799 answers to questions about courtship rituals, the reason for mail pregnancy, 226 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.679 and where seahorses babies go after being borne. May float 227 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:55.039 in the ponds, plants, placid waters. Sweetings might also show 228 00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:59.240 how the species responds to rising water temperatures. Before this project, 229 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:01.679 I would have hesit to ever use this word about 230 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:05.919 a system, but Sweeting's Pond is magical. Mason says. There 231 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.399 is a sea of questions to answer for now, the 232 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:12.159 seahorses of Sweeting's Pond are safe in their island inside 233 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:17.519 an island, and can keep their secrets a little while longer. Next, 234 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:20.200 the poles are teeming with more life than we can 235 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:24.759 see by Andrew Zeleski. In order to understand the massive 236 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:29.360 changes afoot in the warming polar regions, oceanographer Alison Fong 237 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:33.840 is hunting for the tiniest clues. The northern and southern 238 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:37.120 reaches of our planet are heating up faster than anywhere 239 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:40.440 else on Earth. While researchers already know that the region 240 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.759 is poised to change dramatically with ice melting and sea 241 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.080 levels rising, there's a larger question of just what species 242 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:51.240 may survive under these new conditions, which is how micro 243 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:57.279 bi Microbial oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer Alison Pong found 244 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.879 herself wearing a dry suit and eighty pounds of scuba 245 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:04.200 underneath a twenty six foot thick ice floe in the 246 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:09.200 Arctic Ocean. Clutching a glorified turkey baster, Fong was using 247 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:12.360 the enormous syringe to slurp up a thin film of 248 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:16.799 tiny organisms living in the floes underbelly. These microbes, like 249 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:22.799 photosynthetic phytoplankton and sea ice algae, are fundamental to the 250 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:27.080 habitat habitability of Earth. She says by studying them, we 251 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:30.799 can understand how ecosystems are thriving or not, and how 252 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:35.200 different parts of the planet will transform as climate change accelerates. 253 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:40.080 In polar food webs, microbes can capture energy from the 254 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:43.639 sum and become nutrients for all the animals above them 255 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:46.919 in the food chain. But unlike larger creatures like polar 256 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:51.000 bears and whales, microbes have short life spans, sometimes as 257 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:54.200 brief as a few days, making them much more responsive 258 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:57.879 to what's happening in their environments. In the past six years, 259 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:03.039 Following has measured oxygen concentration in microbial communities found in 260 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:08.519 sea ice at both poles to assess what biologists call abundance, 261 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:12.359 which is a measure of the nutrient availability in an environment. 262 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:15.799 The research could provide a window into the types of 263 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:19.519 species that are able to flourish and those that may flounder. 264 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:23.359 Take the Pacific cod Currently, there are hardly any of 265 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:26.720 these fish in the High Arctic because there isn't enough 266 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.759 available food, but as sea ice decreases, more sunlight will 267 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.559 reach the water. In turn, some scientists expect the microbe 268 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:37.680 population to grow, providing nutrients at the base of the 269 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.599 food chain. Thereby allowing the fish to migrate and making 270 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:45.960 the far north and South a potentially lucrative opportunity. One 271 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:50.079 report from the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University 272 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:54.640 of British Columbia Project projects total fisheries revenue in the 273 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:57.920 Arctic may increase as much as thirty nine percent by 274 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:02.119 twenty fifty. But commercial exploiting the waters of the Arctic 275 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.960 would have huge implications for both the ecosystem and the 276 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:10.440 indigenous communities that rely on early marine life to support 277 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:15.400 their subsistence livelihoods. Experts warned that models predicting new fish 278 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:19.200 stocks are extrapolating too much from a small amount of 279 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:23.319 available information. After all, the Arctic is a massive area 280 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:27.640 where few people have collected reliable data. Thong is well 281 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:31.000 aware of how her measurements may be construed. People could 282 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:32.720 look at our data at the base of the food 283 00:18:32.759 --> 00:18:35.119 web and then make a couple of leaps, she says. 284 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:39.319 When minute you're measuring microbes, the next a government department 285 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:42.599 is saying the poles are ripe for the picking. From 286 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:46.440 Pong's perspective, that makes capturing the most complete picture of 287 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.680 how the region is changing ever more urgent. When we 288 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.880 lose sea ice from our polar regions. She says, we 289 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.960 are altering the landscape of what can and cannot exist. 290 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:02.720 Next the wolf keepers Erika Biri High in the mountains 291 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:07.759 of western Mongolia, Kazakh herders have lived in careful balance 292 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:11.200 with wolves for centuries. Now they are increasingly compelled to 293 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:16.920 haunt the creatures they have revered for generations. The horse's 294 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.319 body was still warm when the three men came upon 295 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:21.839 it in the snow. From only the wounds in a 296 00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:25.599 constellation of tracks around the horse, the trio of Kazakh 297 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:29.039 herders could unspool. The morning, a pair of wolves had 298 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:31.440 jumped onto the horse's upper back and brought it to 299 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:35.240 its knees because its tender rear flank was missing, the 300 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:38.359 part a wolf might gorgehn and then later regurgitate to 301 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.680 a nursing mother tending to her young. The hunters were 302 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:44.960 confident there was a den nearby. Eyes peeled, they stowed 303 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:48.279 their guns and traveled on. The wolf hunt continued. The 304 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:56.799 hunters Ibolat Koulmeshkan, Galim Bapar and Serakbo Koshigen belonged to 305 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:00.759 a community of nomadic Kazakh herders that has been shepherding 306 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:05.920 livestock for generations through Mongolia's jagged, wind swept Altay Mountains. 307 00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:10.240 Though Kazakhs make up only four percent of Mongolia's total population, 308 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:13.960 they represent ninety eight percent of the roughly one hundred 309 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:20.160 five thousand inhabitants. Inhabitants in Bayan old Ghi, the country's 310 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:24.279 highest and westernmost province, nestled along the border of China 311 00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:28.880 and Russia, they raise sheep, yax, horses, and occasionally camels 312 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.400 for income and year round sustenance. But it's the gray wolves, 313 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:36.519 both predators of their livestock and in the herder's culture, 314 00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:40.920 sacred beings with which they have the most complex relationship. 315 00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.200 Sarahk Pole says his ancestors, the Blue Turks, who conquered 316 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:49.440 Central Asia in the sixth century, descended from wolves. Most 317 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:52.960 of the Kazak herders are Muslim, but their spirit dual 318 00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:57.240 regard for wolves is rooted in an animism that extends 319 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:01.240 to horses and eagles as well. Occupy a special place, 320 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:04.000 though and are revered for many of the same reasons 321 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.960 they are feared, including their intelligence, courage, and heightened senses. 322 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:12.039 The wolves and herders have coexisted in the Aultae for millennia, 323 00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:16.119 Surviving the ebb and flow of empires and shifting borders. 324 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:20.279 An increasingly volatile climate has pushed the wolves to attack 325 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:25.039 livestock more frequently over the past several years, more often 326 00:21:25.079 --> 00:21:28.000 than ever. The Kazakh nomads are forced to balance their 327 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:31.000 reverence for the wolf with their duty to protect their 328 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:35.119 herds and their livelihoods. This wolf hunt in April twenty 329 00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:38.880 twenty three was the community's first in two years. It 330 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:42.200 came on the heels of a particularly brutal stretch, a 331 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:44.960 Zazud year, as it is known in the region, with 332 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:50.880 a summer scorched by record breaking wildflowers wild fires, followed 333 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:55.680 by a subzero winter. Rather than relief, spring had brought whiplash, 334 00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:58.920 days warm enough for rain than nights so cold that 335 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:02.480 some wet animals within the herd froze to death. Syrah 336 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.160 Bowl says a neighbor lost two hundred animals over night 337 00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:08.799 in one snap. At night, Sarah Bowle and his wife 338 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:12.519 would bring the weakest animals into their gurr, a type 339 00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:16.319 of traditional tent, for warmth. He would often scale cliffs 340 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:20.000 in search of wild grasses to feed his malnourished livestock. 341 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:23.839 We've had hard winters before, but never a dazud like 342 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.680 this in our lives, he says. The Mongolian wolves were 343 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:30.839 just trying to survive. The dazud too. A species of 344 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.039 gray wolf, they live throughout the region, though it's difficult 345 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:41.119 to estimate their numbers. Slightly then there at North African counterparts. 346 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:46.119 They tend to hunt in smaller packs. When their natural prey, 347 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:49.079 such as wild sheep and red deer, become scarce, the 348 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:53.119 wolves unsurprisingly turn to livestock for an easier meal. We 349 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.000 have a saying in Mongolia the wolf fattens during a dzud, 350 00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:02.160 says Bazar Saran, bold eve and ecologist at the National 351 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:08.920 University of Mongolia in Ulang Batur. Complicating matters, livestock herd 352 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:12.319 sizes across western Mongolia have gone up while the number 353 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:16.119 of herders has gone down, leaving domestic animals less protected. 354 00:23:16.599 --> 00:23:21.440 More than ninety percent of bayon Olghi's surveyed herders reported 355 00:23:21.799 --> 00:23:27.079 losing livestock to wolves. According to a recent study, on average, 356 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.480 nearly fourteen animals per herder, seven times more than just 357 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:34.519 two decades earlier. That costs each herder nearly thirteen hundred 358 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:37.640 dollars a year, or around forty percent of the herder's 359 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.000 annual income. In nature, wolves are the ones who control 360 00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:44.119 the number of other animals, sarah Bole says, but there 361 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:47.880 is nothing to control the number of wolves. Back on 362 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:52.720 the wolf hunt, Aborat Galim and serak Bole alternated between 363 00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:55.920 horseback and foot as they moved through belly deep snow. 364 00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:59.880 Spotting a wolf meant crouching, sometimes for hours with binoculars. 365 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.880 When the hunters finally approached a den the next day, 366 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:08.640 the choreography was precise, removing their boots to step quietly 367 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:11.880 through snow in socked feet. They moved only when the 368 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.000 wind blew their scent in the opposite direction. That day, 369 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.400 they killed an adult wolf and discovered a den of 370 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:21.400 eight pups, eyes still pinched shut. Had the pups been 371 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:24.440 a few weeks older, the Cossacks would have considered taking 372 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:27.000 most of them home to raise to adulthood, a form 373 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:31.279 of population control passed down through generations, with the stipulation 374 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:33.720 that at least one pup is always left in the 375 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:36.599 den for the mother. Once grown, the wolves would have 376 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:39.599 been killed, their pelts and other parts used for warmth 377 00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:43.640 and traditional medicine. These pups, though, were barely a week old, 378 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:46.359 so herd her tradition said they were too young to touch. 379 00:24:46.759 --> 00:24:49.920 The men left them alive in the den, despite knowing 380 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:52.799 they would grow to become a risk to live stock. 381 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.079 There has to be humanity in your tradition. Sarah Fall 382 00:24:56.160 --> 00:25:02.079 says that humanity goes beyond veneration, and Kazakh herders understand 383 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:06.039 the rural wolves play in the fragile mountain ecosystem, killing 384 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.240 off weak in old animals on the step and strengthening 385 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:13.200 the overall vitality of the herd. Sarah Bull once left 386 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.359 a few male sheep behind when he changed pastures for 387 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.039 the season, only to come back a year later to 388 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:23.319 find they'd survived. Syak Bull bred those sheep deemed strongest 389 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:26.119 in the face of predators and had the healthiest herd 390 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:31.720 around wolf. We call it an ecological doctor, says Sakin Asphan, 391 00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:35.440 a park ranger who works in wildlife management in bayan 392 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:40.759 Olghi's al Thai Tavan the Good National Park. If the 393 00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:44.640 wolf disappears, there will be lots of diseases. Months later, 394 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:47.480 on a separate hunt, Sarah Bull took home a pup 395 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:50.599 from another den. He treated it like livestock, feeding it 396 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.279 meat as it matured while keeping it tethered in the 397 00:25:53.400 --> 00:25:56.759 yard of his household. When the wolf is full grown, 398 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:59.759 he'll say a prayer and raise his gun Sarah bull 399 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:02.920 so the pelt into a winter proof vest and use 400 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:06.519 parts of the animal medicinally. The herders believe that a 401 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:10.759