Regardless of the reason, fewer diatoms meant fewer krill, which in turn meant fewer whales.

不管原因是什么，硅数量减少意味着磷虾数量减少，进而意味着鲸鱼数量减少。

And starting around 3 million years ago, the oceans began to experience a serious drop in diatom diversity.

从大约300万年前开始，海洋开始经历硅多样性的严重下降。

And we're making sure that this doesn't have any bad effect on the phytoplankton diatoms in the ocean.

我们还要确保这不会对海洋中的浮游植硅造成任何不良影响。

During the Pleistocene, the waters grew colder, and the new and improved productivity at the poles meant diatoms bounced back.

在更新世期间，水域变得更冷，两极新改善的环意味着硅得以恢复。

Diatoms take silicon and use it to form a natural porous shell around themselves.

硅吸收硅并用它在自身周围形成天然多孔壳。

ROSS COEN: They look at the diatoms.

罗斯·科恩：他们观察硅。

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Put that all together, where would you find these diatoms, these minerals, that you wouldn't find coral?

ELISA BERGSLIEN：把所有这些放在一起，你会在哪里找到这些硅、这些矿质，而你找不到珊瑚？

These  can be grouped as follows: Phytoplankton – plant-life such as algae  and diatoms that photosynthesise sunlight.

这些可分为以下几：浮游植——利用阳光进行光合作用的植命，例如硅。

Tiny fossilized skeletons of aquatic creatures called diatoms are swept into the wind and carried westward where they rain down on South America.

被称为硅的水的微小骨骼化石被风吹走并向西飘落在南美洲。

Mr. Bowler says almost half of the oxygen we breathe comes from very small algae called diatoms. These plants live in the part of the water where the sun reaches.

鲍勒说我们呼吸的近一半的氧气来自名为硅的微小，这些植活在太阳能抵达的水中。

Those plants and animals that do survive usually reproduce very fast and in great numbers. The single-cell plant, the diatom, can multiply itself into a billion new distoms in one month.

那些存下来的植动通常重新繁衍更快更多的数量。单细胞植，像硅，能在一个月自己繁衍一百万新的硅。

They're diatoms: photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of -- yeah, glass.

它们是硅：光合作用的单细胞，负责产氧气并在行星范围内帮助种子云， 并具有由——是的， 玻璃制成的复杂雕刻的几何外骨骼。

Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms. I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys for a couple of weeks.

我发现的一些小动是令人愉快的东西， 例如种子虾许多更美丽的几何硅。然后我去了更远的地方， 在干谷露营了几个星期。