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看看这颗种子 Just look at this seed.
它还不到1克重 It weighs under a gram.
看起来十分普通 It looks pretty ordinary.
但你能想象这是它长大后的样子吗 But what it will become is truly extraordinary.
影片压制&调校:timmy 招募Q号:76846146
它们是巨杉 These are giant sequoias.
有些树的树龄超过3千岁 Some of the trees are over three thousand years old.
巨杉是地球上最大的单体生命形式 And sequoias are the largest single life form on earth.
这一切都始于一颗小种子 All from a tiny seed.
纵观地球的历史 Yet even that pales into insignificance...
和地球这个郁郁葱葱的植物王国相比 ...compared to what the whole of the plant kingdom has done...
那颗小种子有点微不足道 ...throughout the history of our planet.
它们吸取日月的精华 They harness light from the stars.
带给地球能量 Bringing energy to our world.
它们创造生命带给地球生机 They created our life giving atmosphere.
它们塑造着地球表面 They sculpted the very surface of the Earth.
它们推动着动物的进化历程 And they drove the evolution of all animals...
包括人类的祖先 ...including our own ancestors.
这是一个关于地球的全新故事 It's a whole new story about our Earth.
有许多神奇的景象 Told through remarkable images,
几乎都是首次捕捉拍摄到 Captured for the very first time.
这是我们故事开始的地方 This is the start of that story.
植物最初是如何出现在贫瘠的地球上 How plants took a barren alien rock our planet,
又是如何将地球变成可居住的家园 and transformed it into the home we know today.
种出个地球
生命之光
这是地球上最大的洞穴 位于越南中部地区 Here in central Vietnam is one of the largest caves in the world.
总共7公里长称为韩松洞 At seven kilometres long, this is known as Hang Son Doong.
洞中很暗四周环境很罕见 It's a dark, alien world.
这里几乎没有生命迹象 Down here very little is alive.
洞穴中充满了奇形怪状的石头 The caverns are full of spectacular rock formations.
但洞穴深处才是奥秘的所在 But further inside the cave is something far more extraordinary.
离入口3公里处有一处坍塌的地方 Three kilometres from the entrance the roof of the cave has collapsed...
出现了一片雨林 ...and a rainforest has invaded.
整片的灌木丛充满着各式各样的生命形式 An entire jungle, teeming with life.
因为一个重要的条件 这片雨林才得以存活 This rainforest exists because of one thing above all.
有了那样东西植物可以在地球的任何地方生长 Something which has enabled plants to colonise almost everywhere on earth.
阳光 经过1亿5千万公里才到达地球 Light...light which has travelled a hundred and fifty million kilometres from the sun.
植物利用阳光的能量产生身体所需的食物 Plants have this truly remarkable ability to harness energy from outer space to produce food.
正是这种吸收阳光滋养生命的能力 It's this ability to eat the sun...
使得植被遍布整个地球 ...to manufacture life from light that has allowed plants to dominate our planet.
这就是光合作用 It is called photosynthesis...
这种作用形成了地球上最重要的自然生长过程 ...and it is the most important natural process on Earth.
它们将死气沉沉的地球转变成如今的生机勃勃 It's how the plant kingdom has transformed a lifeless planet into a living world.
但事情并非总是如此 But it wasn't always like this.
想了解这个过程怎么开始就必须倒回30亿年前一看究竟 And to see how it started, we need to go back three billion years.
最初我们的星球鲜有生命 To begin with, our planet was like an alien world.
氧气也很少 There was very little oxygen.
大气中充斥着有毒气体 Instead the atmosphere was a cocktail of toxic gases...
全都是火山喷发所致 ...spewed out by the many volcanoes.
当时的地球寸草不生 The land was lifeless.
那是因为最初的大气层 That's because the primitive atmosphere couldn't screen out...
不能过滤掉太阳强烈的紫外线 ...the sun's powerful ultra-violet rays.
陆地上的任何生物都经不起紫外线的烧烤 Anything on land would have been burnt to a crisp.
然而这一切即将改变 Yet all this was about to change.
地球上适宜生命生存的大气层形成了 A momentous event that would create the planet's first life-supporting atmosphere.
这个历史性的时刻发生在距今30亿到25亿年的5亿年间 This event between three and two and a half billion years ago...
那是地球生命史上最伟大的转折点 ...was the single greatest turning point in the history of life on Earth.
那时植被的祖先们开始占领地球 And it was all brought about by the earliest ancestors of plants.
这里是南非的石山铁矿地点 Here at the Sishen Iron Mine in South Africa,
那个历史大事件的证据今天仍然可以考证 evidence of that epic event can still be unearthed today.
但要找出它 我们需要一点说明 But to get to it, you need a bit of help.
30秒 10秒 Thirty seconds, ten
这些爆破打开了时间的横断面 These explosions open a cross section back in time.
让我们一睹植物王国远古的始祖们 To the distant origins of the plant kingdom.
凡妮莎·里科福德是矿山的地质学家 Vanessa Lickfold is a Geologist at the mine.
她能从铁矿石的颜色中得知氧气的变化情况 She knows that the colour of the iron ore can tell us a lot about the first free oxygen.
凡妮莎·里科福德地质学家 (Vanessa Lickfold Geologist)
这是一块铁矿石 This is a lump of iron ore...
如果我倒些水上去你能很清晰地看到这些颜色 ...and if I pour some water on it you actually get to see the colours quite well.
一块纯铁的颜色是很灰 很有光泽的 Now Iron in its normal pure form is quite grey and shiny...
但这里有一大块是红色的 ...but you'll see here that a lot of the iron ore is red...
这些红色的部分应该是氧气作用的结果 ...for a large part that is red because it's reacted with oxygen.
那些氧气是植物的祖先产生的 That oxygen was created by the ancestors of plants,
氧化后就一直存留在这块铁石里了 and has been trapped in the rock ever since.
现在这块铁石要被用作一个奇特的实验 Now, this iron ore is going to be used for a unique experiment.
目的是从这些古石中分离出氧气 The aim is to extract the oxygen from these ancient rocks.
我们将溶解部分铁石 Some of this iron ore has been made into a solution.
我将含有氧化铁的溶液和汽车电池连接起来 I'm going to pass a current via a car battery through the solution that's got the iron oxide in it.
这个反应不复杂但结果很令人激动 This will result in a simple but astonishing reaction.
泡泡开始形成了 Bubbles start to form.
这些泡泡就是氧气 These bubbles are the gas oxygen.
25亿年前这块铁石被氧化了 It's being released for the first time in over two and a half billion years...
25亿年后我们将氧气从其中释放了出来 ...when it was locked away in the rock.
仅仅一个小时释放出的氧气充满了整个试管 In just one hour there is enough to fill the whole test tube.
凡妮莎要做一件将终生难忘的事情 Vanessa is going to do something that she'll never forget.
现在实验已经完成 我现在有了一根充满氧气的试管 We've finished the experiment now and I have a test tube full of oxygen...
氧气确实是从铁石中分离出来的 ...and this oxygen is actually created from the iron ore...
我要吸这个氧气 ...and I'm just about to breathe it in.
哇 对地质学家来说吸一口25亿年前的氧气 Wow for a Geologist breathing in oxygen from two and a half billion years ago
这感觉真是棒极了 is just amazing.
这块氧化铁的故事很精彩 The iron bands tell a remarkable story.
它们首次揭示了 They're evidence that for the first time,
25亿年前地球的大气层中富含氧气 two and a half billion years ago, oxygen flooded the Earth's atmosphere.
地球当时的有毒气体被清除了 It cleaned out the planet's toxic gases,
清澈蔚蓝的天空首次出现了 leaving the sky a clear blue for the first time.
地质学家称这个变化为大氧化事件 Geologists call it the 'Great Oxidation Event'.
这的确称得上是大事件 And it certainly was an event.
这个不可逆的变化形成了一个新世界 This was an irreversible change between two very different worlds:
新世界富含氧气而旧世界鲜有氧气 a planet with virtually no free oxygen, and a planet full of oxygen.
那么这个大事件是如何发生的呢？ So how did this great event happen?
答案就藏在生命开始之际 The answer lies with the first burst of life...
最初的生命并非出现在陆地上而是海洋中 ...which emerged not on the hostile land, but under water.
那时候海水就像是液体防晒霜阻隔了紫外线对海洋生物的危害 Back then water acted as a liquid sunscreen to the dangerous UV rays.
有了海水的保护 Under the protection of water,
地球上最早的生物体微小细菌开始进化 the earliest organisms on Earth evolved, in the form of tiny bacteria.
这些小细菌有个神奇的特质 But these bacteria had something surprising about them...
它们是紫色的 ...they were purple.
30亿年前大部分的海洋中都充斥着这些微小的细菌 Three billion years ago, much of the world's oceans were filled with these bacteria.
想象一下从外太空看地球是什么场景 Imagine that from outer space!
一个紫色的地球 A purple Earth.
紫色的细菌们靠吸取阳光来生存 The purple bacteria live by harnessing energy from the sun.
但它们只取阳光中的部分能量 But they only used part of the light.
一些光线进入了深海区域 Some rays passed deeper into the water.
随着时间的推移另一种不同的细菌出现了 And over time a different type of bacteria evolved.
它们靠着微弱的阳光存活 They had to live off the colours of light left over.
因此它们的颜色是绿色的 This made them appear green.
它们就是蓝藻细菌 They are known as the cyanobacteria.
这些绿色的微生物是地球上所有植物的祖先 These green micro-organisms became the ancestors of all plants on Earth.
也正因为蓝藻细菌是绿色的所以今天的植被也都是绿色的 And because they are green, all plants today are green.
不仅仅是颜色的不同 But it wasn't just about colour.
而是蓝藻细菌能做它表亲紫色细菌不能做的事 Because the green bacteria did something their purple cousins couldn't:
那就是蓝藻细菌能产生氧气 they produced oxygen.
它们为死寂的地球带来了生命 They would breathe life into the lifeless land.
没有它们我们的星球的情况将与火星无异 Without them, the story of our planet would be more like that of Mars.
那么蓝藻细菌到底如何创造了这个富含氧气的地球呢 So how exactly did those tiny green bacteria create a world so full of oxygen'?
为了解释这个现象我们先研究一下现今的植被 To find out how they achieved it, we can look at plants which are alive today.
这是英格兰西南部正在进行的一个伊甸园项目 This is the Eden Project in South West England.
这里科学家们正在进行一项史无前例的试验 Here, scientists are attempting an experiment that has never been done before.
嗨 Hi.
你好啊 Hello there.
我是来为您服务的你就是博士吧 I'm the Guinea pig. Doctor I presume.
是的 我是丹·马丁 Indeed - Dan Martin.
看这个真是太神奇了 Look at this, this is fantastic.
不可思议 对吗 Incredible isn't it?
一个勇敢的志愿者自愿锁在这个设计特殊的密封室 A brave volunteer has agreed to be locked inside this specially designed airtight chamber.
首先这个可以监测你的心率和氧含量 So first of all this will monitor your heart rate and your oxygen levels.
好的 Ok.
你在里面的任何反应我们这里都可以看到 If we just pop that in there and we can just have a look here.
伊恩·斯图尔特教授对于大气 Prof lain Stewart is interested in the atmosphere
以及植物对我们呼吸的空气的影响很感兴趣 and the affect plants have on the air we breathe.
最上面的这个是你的心率 So at the top is your heart rate.
数值怎么样啊？高吗？ How's that'? Is that really high?
我觉得可能是因为你现在有点紧张吧 I think you might be a little bit anxious about going in there?
我确实有点紧张 I am a little bit.
我相信你平静后的心率肯定不会是95 I'm sure your resting heart rate is not normally 95.
我也一直在担心这个 No, I have been thinking about it I have to say.
为了更易于看到氧气的重要性 To see how essential oxygen is,
伊恩将一些主要的指标都和血液中的氧气量联系了起来 lain's vital signs are being monitored along with the oxygen levels in his blood.
接下来的48小时他都将被锁在这个密室中 He is going to be sealed inside the chamber for the next 48 hours.
好的我已经准备好了现在开门吧 OK I'm as ready as I'll ever be guys so can we open this door.
祝我好运 Wish me luck.
啊这里挺小的不是吗 Ah it's small isn't it.
伊恩将在这有着300株植物的屋子里待上一会儿 lain will be sharing his new home with three hundred plants.
好的我现在要开始降低氧浓度 Okay, everyone, I'm going to start reducing the oxygen concentration I'm here now.
抽气机现在正在运转 Ok the pump's running.
密室中的氧气被降到和地球初始时差不多的量 Oxygen in the chamber is reduced to a level much closer to that of the early earth.
好的氧气管中的氧气快没了 Ok Oxygen pump's going off now everyone.
好的伊恩那么现在密室中的氧含量 Ok lain so the oxygen concentration in the chamber now...
大约是12.5% 刚好够人类呼吸用的 ...is about twelve and a half per cent which is about as low as we're comfortable with.
所以大概就是人类在室外所呼吸的… So that's just slightly over half the amount of oxygen...
氧气含量的一半稍多一点 ...that there normally is in the air that we breathe out here.
为了测量出缺乏氧气将如何影响人类的身心 To gauge how the lack of oxygen is affecting lain's body and mind,
博士们对他进行了一系列的试验 the Doctors put him through a series of tests.
3 2 1 开始 Three, two, one, Go.
绿 黄 红 绿 某种橘色 紫色 蓝色 Green yellow, red, green, ahh kind of orange...errrr...purple, arh blue.
你会发现缺氧情况下思维有点迟纯 You'll find that thinking becomes a little bit slower.
伊恩的手和眼睛的协调性受到损害 Iain's hand to eye coordination is being impaired.
你给它们随意排序 You can put them in any order you like.
就是这样 That's the way...
你能告诉我们现在感觉如何吗？ Can you tell us just exactly how are you feeling?
挺搞笑的 我感觉很慢在这里面绝对变慢了 It's funny, it felt very slow... that slowness is there definitely.
博士们计算出要这样下去伊恩将很快用完氧气 The doctors calculate that at the rate lain's using up oxygen,
他将在24小时内失去知觉最终窒息而死 he'd be unconscious within 24 hours and eventually dead.
你的氧气饱和度只有88% Your oxygen saturation is sort of eighty eight percent.
要是现在在医院的话这种状况医生是很担忧的 If that was your level in hospital we would be pretty worried about you right now.
下一个重要的步骤是密室中300株植物 The next crucial step is to see if the three hundred plants inside the chamber...
是否可以提供足够伊恩活下来的氧气量呢 ...can produce enough oxygen to keep lain alive.
这一切都和一种神奇的能力有关 It's all to do with that wondrous ability
这种能力是从蓝藻细菌那里继承来的 they inherited from those green bacteria -
它就是光合作用 Photosynthesis.
我想现在可以开灯了 I think we can have the lights on please'?
要想让植物们发挥作用首先需要的就是光 To kick start it - you need light.
哇 突然开灯很刺眼啊 Wow, suddenly the light's hit.
植物通过光合作用生存并生长 Plants use photosynthesis to live and grow.
对我们来说最重要的是它们能产生氧气 And most importantly for us, to make oxygen.
这个实验将向我们展示植物的祖先 The experiment will demonstrate how the ancestors of plants...
是如何创造出地球上第一个可呼吸的大气层的 ...created the world's first breathable atmosphere.
为了了解是如何发生的 To understand what's happening
我们要进入一个神奇的微观世界一探究竟 you need to enter a magical unseen world.
在每株植物的每个叶片上 Inside every leaf, of every plant, on the planet...
都能发现它们是蓝藻细菌直系后代的证据 ...are the direct descendants of those first green bacteria.
把叶子放大1千倍你能很清晰地看到它们 Magnify a leaf a thousand times and you can see them.
它们称为叶绿体 存在每一个小巢中 They're known as chloroplasts - packed into every cell.
它们的行为方式有点像细菌 They still behave a bit like bacteria -
这是观察到它们向着光源移动的镜头 this is real footage of them moving towards a flash of light.
它们的大小只有千分之五毫米那么大 They're just five thousandths of a millimetre across.
正是在叶绿体内部光合作用发生了 And it's inside chloroplasts that photosynthesis happens.
太阳光线是由光子组成的 Light rays from the sun are made of photons.
它们是些移动迅速的电磁能粒子 They are tiny fast moving particles of electromagnetic energy.
当它们和植物表面接触时 When they hit the surface...
光子的能量被一个称为光线捕捉复合体的圆环吸取 ...the energy of the photons is captured by a ring called a light harvesting complex.
在这个复合体内部 Inside this complex,
12个光子的能量用来分离一个水分子 the energy of twelve photons is used to split a water molecule.
水分子被分解成氢和氧这两部分 It's ripped into its two elements - hydrogen and oxygen.
植物们利用氢生存和生长 The plants use the hydrogen to live and grow.
但这个实验恰恰需要水的另一部分分离物 But the experiment depends on the other part of water...
植物将其像废弃物一样地抛弃了 ...that plants pump out as a waste product-
它就是氧气 the oxygen.
若实验成功了 If the experiment is to be a success,
植物将提高空气中的氧气含量 the plants have to raise the oxygen from a dangerous twelve percent...
从危险的12%提高为21%这样人类才能呼吸 ...back to the twenty one percent we normally breathe.
很明显我们的责任是照顾好伊恩 Obviously our role here is to look after lain...
卡特里娜·霍普博士 (Dr Katrina Hope)
让他处在低氧状态确实很令人担心 ...putting him into straight a low level of oxygen is a worrying thing.
丹尼·尔马丁博士 (Dr Daniel Martin)
不从植物学家的角度来看我的主要担心是… My main worry not being a botanist is...
这些植物产生不出足够的氧气 ...that these plants are not going to produce enough oxygen.
要进行光合作用植物所需要的不仅仅是阳光 It's not just light the plants need.
还需要足够的水 To produce oxygen from photosynthesis they also need plenty of water.
但当伊恩四处为植物浇水时支撑他行动的氧气也快用完了 But when lain moves around he uses up precious oxygen.
真是非常令人担心你都忙了整个下午了 It is quite concerning, you've been very busy this afternoon,
做了大量的活动现在我们要严格控制你说话次数 a lot of activity, so we need to restrict the amount you're talking...
还有尽可能多的休息 ...and really getting you resting as much as possible,
博士们命令不要在密室中频繁地活动 要休息 not dashing around the chamber any more this is doctors orders, bed rest.
晚安了 Night night.
密室内大约有1万片叶子 Inside the chamber there are around ten thousand leaves.
它们充满了30立方公尺的密室 They have thirty cubic metres of the box to fill.
一些像玉米这样的植物很擅长光合作用 Some plants, like this or maize are particularly good at photosynthesising.
有了光亮就可进行光合作用 Using the power of light and the miracle of photosynthesis...
之后植物会源源不断地向外释放人类所需的氧气 ...they gradually pump out their life-giving oxygen.
每小时的氧气量都有所增加真是太不可思议了 So can see the increase every-hour, it's incredible.
它们真的释放了大量的氧气 They are really pushing out a lot of oxygen as you can see.
两天后 After nearly two days...
植物在密室内产生出了2千公升的氧气 ...the plants have filled the chamber with two thousand litres of oxygen.
植物们成功了 The plants have triumphed:
它们释放出了足够的氧气供人类存活 they have produced enough oxygen to keep a human being alive...
并将氧含量提高到正常水平 ...and return levels almost to normal.
啊 感谢大家啊 我还活着 Ahhh...thanks guys I'm alive.
我活下来了 I've survived.
感谢你们 Thanks guys.
很高兴见到你 你做得太好了 Hi it's so good to see you well done.
恭喜啊 Congratulations.
我们有东西要给你 We've got something for you
干得好 Well done.
哇 太棒了谢谢大家 Aww it's cool as well, thanks for that guys.
这个试验可以做为整个植物王国的缩影 The experiment can be seen as a metaphor for the entire planet.
人类和植物间的关系 And for our relationship with plants -
是植物释放的氧气能延续我们的生命 they keep life going.
早期的地球就像这个密室 The early earth was like the chamber.
氧气含量发生了从无到有的转变 It was transformed from a world with very little oxygen to a world rich in oxygen.
从此氧气在各方面造福着我们人类 And all that oxygen began to do something else.
氧气在上层大气中创造了臭氧 High in the upper atmosphere it created ozone.
臭氧形成了地球的保护层 This was a protective blanket,
它包裹着地球使其免受紫外线的危害 which enveloped the earth and blocked most of the sun's dangerous UV rays.
那意味着首次在地球的历史上 It meant that for the first time in the planets history.
植物可以在陆地上生长 Plants could move onto the land.
这个过程经历了漫长的时间 But it was no small step.
实际上是我们在海洋的保护下度过了几十亿年的历史 The thing is, if you'd been protected by water for billions of years,
有一天却要移到陆地上生活 这个举动太惊人了 then the move to the land was going to be a rude shock.
大约4亿年前植物们终于跨出了伟大的一步 Yet over four hundred million years ago plants finally made that leap.
这些植物先驱们的证据来自苏格兰东北部的一个小村庄 Evidence for these pioneers comes from a small village in North East Scotland.
这是瑞尼村 这里有一面特殊的石墙 Here in Rhynie there is a very special stonewall.
它是自然科学史上最重要的石墙 The most important stonewall in the history of science.
回到4.1亿年前 Back four hundred and ten million years ago,
那时的苏格兰在赤道正南方和现在完全不同 Scotland was located well south of the equator and looked like another world.
温泉和间歇泉遍布呈现的是荒芜的多石地貌 Hot springs and geysers boiled out across a rocky and barren landscape.
同时还发生着另一件事 But something else was happening.
1913年一个当地的博士无意中发现了 As a local doctor discovered in 1913...
这面墙上有一些奇怪的纹路 ...when he came across some curious markings in this wall.
这面石墙首次被麦基博士发现了 Well it was first discovered by Doctor Mackie...
奈杰尔·切尔文地质学家 (Nigel Trewin Geologist)
他当时其实是在绘制一张描述火山岩走向的地图 ...and he was actually doing a geological map of the igneous rocks in this area...
他本人对化石毫不感兴趣 ...and had no interest in fossils at all.
但当他带了一块回家时 But when he took a piece home.
发现那些暗点和污点其实是植物的茎脉 He discovered that the dark spots and splodges he could see in it were actually stems of plants.
这些植物被完好无损地保存在石头中 And the plants were preserved in fantastic detail.
这些能看见的分隔号是正在生长的植物 The dark vertical lines that you can see on here are plants that are still in the position of growth...
这实在是太罕见了 ...which is one of the most unusual things.
地球上很少见这样的沉积物 There are very few deposits anywhere in the world...
它们应该是在最初生长的地方被完整地保存了 ...where plants are preserved in the position in which they grew.
当它们还活着的时候它们的样子就是这样的 And when they were alive, they would have looked like this.
只有几厘米高 它们是单体菌种 Just a few centimetres tall, they're called Aglaophyton.
裸露的茎干顶端呈灯泡状 Bulbous shapes on the end of naked stems.
那时候的植物无需叶子也无需根 A time before leaves or roots,
它们生性喜欢水 yet somehow these bizarre life forms survived along the water's edge.
在苏格兰这里发现的植物 What had been found here in Scotland,
是最早期植物的开拓者它们勇敢地迈出了伟大的一步 were some of the earliest pioneering plants to make that giant leap.
从海洋移居至陆地上 To colonize the land.
那个时期湖泊和河流的边缘地带 And around this time all along the margins of lakes and rivers,
长满了这些原始植物 primitive plants were coming ashore.
从太空上看地球首次开始出现生机 For the first time when viewed from space the land began to look alive...
将一个死寂的世界慢慢变得富饶肥沃 ...the beginning of a transformation from hostile world to fertile Earth.
即使如此当时植被在陆地的覆盖率并不高 Yet this wasn't a full-scale invasion:
只是一小部分 just a toehold.
当时的植被主要还是沿着水源附近生长 Plants were still tied to the water's edge,
没有进入内陆地区也没办法在粗糙的岩石表面生长 unable to head inland and penetrate the harsh rocky surface.
但这一切将发生变化 But all this was about to change.
植物通过进化发展找到了解决上述问题的办法 Plants evolved an inspired solution to the problem.
它们进化出了一个有效储存水分和营养物质的结构 A brilliant new device for collecting water and nutrients -
根 Roots.
这是亚洲的柬埔寨 Cambodia -
这是12世纪建造的塔布隆寺它是人类文明的奇迹 the 12th century temple here at Ta Prohm is a wonder of civilization.
也是自然的奇迹 But it's also a wonder of the natural world.
尽管现在的树根和当时的大为不同 Although they're very different from the first roots to evolve,
但这个神圣的地方显露出的树根 it's a superb place to reveal
说明了植被又是如何进军内陆地区的 how roots allowed plants to invade inland.
我现在身后的这根大树就是最好的佐证 What we can see behind us is one of the best examples I think...
艾理斯塔·莫得 吴哥窟生物多样性保护中心 (Alistair Mould Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity)
它正是长在这些吴哥窟庙宇的顶部 ...of strangler figs actually growing on top of these temples at Angkor Wat...
在这你能清晰地看见岩石之间 ...here you can actually see in between the rock systems.
它们一路渗透直至地面这里 It's penetrating all the way down to the ground here.
基本上它们是穿入岩石 Basically they're penetrating through some of the rock here without actually going...
而非从岩石缝中经过 目的就是尽可能地找到水分 ...in between some of the crevices here in a struggle basically to find water.
植物最早出现根部要追溯至4.1亿年前 Roots first evolved about four hundred and ten million years ago.
根的出现使得植物可以冲破岩层的束缚 They gave plants the ability to smash up a rocky planet.
通过穿透岩石 By breaking up the rock,
根部创造了一种造福植物的物质 roots are creating a material which benefits the plant.
根系在穿透岩石时形成了土壤 The rooting systems are forming soil by penetrating through rock,
通过渗透的过程将岩石慢慢分解成小碎片 breaking it into smaller pieces that's degrading through the process of erosion,
经过风化侵蚀成更小的颗粒最终成为土壤本身 weathering down into smaller particles actually forming the soil itself.
土壤十分适合储存水分 Soil is perfect for storing water...
土壤对植物进入内陆地区起了至关重要的作用 ...and was crucial to the plants invasion of the land.
今天地球陆地面积的40%是由土壤组成的 Today soil covers forty percent of the planet's land.
形成土壤的时间很长1千年只能形成2厘米 It takes a long time to form - a thousand years to make just two centimetres.
尽管当时的土壤很稀少但对植物仍然至关重要 But it's essential for plant life, just as it was back then.
4亿年前 Four hundred million years ago...
原始的无叶植物现在终能挣脱水源对它们的束缚 ...the primitive leafless plants could now break free from the water's edge.
有了根系有了土壤植物所向无敌 Roots and the soil they created made plants unstoppable...
首次可以在地球的任何地方生存 ...allowing them to colonise inland for the first time.
植物的大范围生长对地球上所有的生命都有巨大的影响 An invasion that would have a dramatic influence on all life on Earth.
数百万年来动物也被限制在河流和海洋中 For millions of years, animals had been confined to the rivers and oceans.
现在它们也终于可以走出海洋 Now they could finally emerge from the water.
我们和一种生物一起时光倒流 了解当时那些最初的变化 You get an idea of those first tentative steps,
这种生物近5亿年来几乎未发生什么变化 by travelling back in time with a creature that's barely changed in five hundred million years.
这里是美国的东海岸 On the east coast of America, these ancient creatures -
这些古老的生物 鲎仍然在黄昏时上岸 horseshoe crabs, still come ashore at dusk.
鲎被认为是活化石 Horseshoe crabs are...
约翰·塔纳克莱德海洋生物学家 (John T Tanacredi Marine Biologist)
至今大家还是这么认为的 ...considered living fossils, that's the term that's being used.
这些生物体如此令人着迷的原因是 But the reason that these organisms are so intriguing...
它们是真正的古代海洋生物 ...is that they're true ancient mariners...
而且是地球上历史最悠久的物种 ...and they have been on the earth longer than many other species.
之所以能存活这么久 One of the reasons for their success...
是因为它们的肺像鳃一样确保它们在没水的情况下存活数天 ...something which enables them to stay out of the water for days is their lung like gills.
这些是叶鳃 它们对离开水的动物很重要 These are the book gills and they're basically important for the animal to come out of the water...
动物能否存活取决于叶鳃的潮湿度 ...and its survival is based upon their being moist.
这样动物们就可以离水上岸产卵了 It gives them the opportunity to move onto to the land, to lay their eggs.
它们一定是早期离开海洋环境 These are certainly some of the earliest organisms...
登陆陆地环境的生物体 ...that moved out of the marine environment up onto the land.
化石表明鲎出现在陆地上至少是在4亿年前 Fossils show that horseshoe crabs appeared on land at least four hundred million years ago.
它们是首批上岸的动物之一 They were some of the first animals ever to come ashore.
两栖动物和昆虫们不久也上岸了 Amphibians and insects soon followed.
氧气有助于它们上岸生存同时还有另一样东西的怂恿 Oxygen allowed them to move onto land, but something else was also enticing them.
那就是植物进行光合作用能产生糖分 The main reason that plants photosynthesise is to create sugars.
糖分对植物的生存和生长非常关键 Sugars that are vital for plants to live and to grow,
同时也是动物们的食物 and also provide a source of food for all animals.
植物制造糖分需要水分 Plants make this sugar from water,
需要空气中的二氧化碳 carbon dioxide from the air,
还需要阳光 and energy from the sun.
同样的这一切都发生在这些微小的叶绿体中 And again it all happens in those tiny chloroplasts.
我们已经知道光线如何将水分子分解成氧和氢 We've seen how light splits water into oxygen and hydrogen.
接着植物吸收了氢元素 Well, the plant takes that hydrogen...
和二氧化碳反应产生出了糖分 ...and combines it with carbon dioxide to make sugar.
将一株植物置于含有放射性标记的二氧化碳下 By exposing a plant to carbon dioxide tagged with a radioactive marker,
我们能清晰地看见这些渗出来的糖分 you can see the sugar being created.
科学家首次透过植物展现这一变化的过程 For the first time scientists have imaged this transformation and movement through the plant.
一旦植物细胞吸收了二氧化碳 植物体本身就开始发光了 As soon as carbon dioxide is sucked into the plant cells, they begin to glow.
这正是植物光合作用时将二氧化碳转化为糖分的真实过程 This is the actual moment that photosynthesis turns the carbon dioxide into sugar.
15分钟后 In just fifteen minutes,
新生的糖分将被送至植物根部储存起来 the newly formed sugar is sent to the roots for storage.
以供植物日后生长所需 The plant can then use this sugar to grow and thrive.
4亿年前无叶植物首次开始繁茂生长 Four hundred million years ago leafless plants were flourishing like never before.
但大气层的遽变将全部植物置于危险之地 But a dramatic transformation of the atmosphere was about to throw plants into a global crisis.
不仅改变了植物的形状 Not only would it change their shape -
而且改变了地球上的所有生物 it would change all life on our planet.
这是塔拉维拉湖 This is Lake Tarawera...
位于纽西兰 ...in New Zealand.
这个古老的地貌是3.6亿年前某种植物的家园 This ancient landscape is home to a plant that three hundred and sixty million years ago...
遽变激发其进化出了解决办法 ...confronted that crisis and came up with an inspired solution.
马克·拉吉植物学家 (Mark Large Botanist)
最初那些在岸上生长的植物 The first plants that actually came out onto the land...
面临着一个和今天十分不同的大气状况 ...probably encountered an atmosphere that was very very different to the one we see today.
二氧化碳含量更高接着骤然下降 Carbon dioxide levels were originally much higher and then they actually plummeted.
降到很低很低的含量 They went down very very low.
没有足够的二氧化碳植物生命受到威胁 Without enough of this vital gas, plants began struggling.
如果植物找不到吸入更多二氧化碳的办法 If they couldn't find a way to breathe in more carbon dioxide,
它们就会窒息而死 they'd suffocate.
也正是低含量的二氧化碳激发了植物 And it was that low carbon dioxide that then triggered off the plants...
进化出最大限度吸取二氧化碳的身体结构 ...to develop structures which maximised carbon dioxide uptake.
我们称之为叶片 We call those leaves.
叶片解决了所有植物的呼吸问题 Leaves were the answer to all plants breathing problems.
超过100块叶片的展开大量地增加了呼吸的表面面积 They massively increased their surface area by over a hundred fold...
可以使得植物以最大限度吸取空气中二氧化碳 ...allowing them to absorb far more carbon dioxide.
一株株如同这些树蕨一样的美丽的植被 Now for the first time,
产生出了历史上最早的树荫 shade was cast by a beautiful and delicate canopy like these Dicksonia ferns.
周围的这些树蕨 The ferns that we see around us actually represent...
可以代表早期进化出叶子的那些植被 ...those really old lineages of the first plants that actually developed leaves.
这个先进的呼吸装置的秘诀就在每片蕨叶的下面 The key to this advanced breathing apparatus is on the underside of each fern leaf.
这些微小的洞是气孔 They are microscopic holes called stomata.
将其放在电子显微镜下观察 Filmed in action with an electron microscope,
这些小孔一张一合达140次 this is them opening and closing speeded up a hundred and forty times.
每片叶子上有多达上千个这样的气孔 There are thousands of stomata on every leaf on Earth.
这样每片蕨叶每天可吸入5公升的二氧化碳 They allow a single fern to breathe in five litres of carbon dioxide a clay.
它的叶子富含气孔拯救了危险中的植物 The evolution of leaves, rich in stomata, saved plants from suffocation.
同时叶子也可以吸收更多的阳光 But leaves also allowed plants to capture more light.
给了植物更多的养分 This in turn fuelled fierce competition.
每株植物都很需要阳光 Each plant desperate for the sun's rays.
互相之间对阳光的争夺会刺激新植物的出现 This family squabble would lead to a new type of plant.
它将产生令人惊奇的反应 One that would have surprising repercussions for the planet.
我们怎么知道呢？ How do we know?
这要感谢加拿大新斯科舍出现的罕见证据 Well it's all thanks to some rare evidence here in Nova Scotia, in Canada.
这条崎岖的海岸线上的岩石已经有3亿年的历史了 The rocks in this rugged coast line are over three hundred million years old.
在它们内部科学家发现了一个失落的世界 And locked inside them scientists discovered evidence of a lost world.
约翰·卡特地质学家 (John H Calder Geologist)
我身后裸露的这些悬崖 Behind me in these cliffs are exposed...
是石炭纪丛林的最好佐证 ...the world's best examples of fossil forests of the coal age.
它们裸露的原因 The reason that they're exposed...
是因为汹涌无情的潮汐袭击了这片海湾 ...is because of the relentless action of the world's highest tides here in the Bay of Funday.
这里潮汐不断化石也越来越多 They continually hue the cliffs and replenish the fossil record.
这里每5年新老树就要交替一次 The trees come and go about every 5 years...
因此每次你走在这些崎岖的海岸上 ...and so every time you walk these shores, along this rugged beach...
总能发现一些新化石 ...there's a chance of discovering some new pressing from the pages of time.
这个化石其实是颗小树 This fossil is actually a small fossil tree.
名称是鳞木 The name is Lepidodendron.
它是我的最爱 It's one of my favourites.
我14岁时第一次发现的化石也是鳞木 The first fossil I found here actually I was fourteen was a Lepidodendron.
你能清晰地看到树皮的菱形纹路 You can see the diamond shape pattern of the bark.
每一个小菱形就有一个小凸点 Which was the result, each little diamond had a spot...
那里长着长针样的树叶树木长大时树荫也形成了 ...where a long needle like leaf grew and was shed as the tree grew.
鳞木现在已经消失了 These trees are now extinct.
但3亿年前它们形成了地球上第一批的热带雨林 But over three hundred million years ago they made up the planet's first tropical forests.
在地球热带地区的湿地带鳞木随处可见 Found in swamps throughout the Earth's tropics,
这些树木繁衍太茂盛了从外太空看是一大片的深绿色 these first forests were so extensive you'd have seen a band of dark green from space.
所有那些新叶子都产生氧气 And all those new leaves were pumping out oxygen.
氧气含量几乎是现在的2倍 So much that levels of oxygen increased not far off double what they are today.
这对动物们产生了奇特的影响 It was having a very odd effect on animals...
特别是对昆虫和其他的小动物 ...in particular insects and their cousins.
无脊椎动物没有肺它们只有简单的呼吸道 Instead of lungs, invertebrates have simple breathing tubes...
依靠扩散的氧气到达它们的内部器官 ...that rely on diffusion for oxygen to reach their internal organs.
这些动物的体型大小 The size of these animals...
受限于空气中氧气浓度的高低 ...is therefore limited by the concentration of oxygen in the air.
鳞木雨林释放大量的氧气 Increase the oxygen -
致使氧气量增加 just as the first forests did -
事情开始变得有趣起来 and things get interesting!
赤道附近繁茂的热带雨林 The lush tropical forests of this time period across the equator...
释放出了大量的氧气 ...pumped huge amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere.
富含氧气的大气层 That oxygen rich atmosphere was probably responsible,
导致了一些生物体型变大 for the very large size which some of the creatures attained during this time.
这是如今现存最大的千足虫 Here is one of the biggest millipede species alive today.
这些化石的足迹可以追溯至早期的雨林时期 These are fossil footprints which date back from the time of the early forests.
它们揭示了这些小家伙的祖先体型是很大的 They reveal that the ancestors of this little fellow were massive.
节胸属科动物当时有2公尺长 Called Arthropleuridae it was over two metres long.
当时的雨林应该是很恐怖的 The forests would have been terrifying.
到处都是巨型蝎子巨型蜘蛛 With giant scorpions and giant spiders.
不仅仅是陆地上 And not just on the land...
今天蜻蜓的翅膀不过10厘米左右 Most modern dragonflies have a wingspan of about ten centimetres.
当时的蜻蜓可要大得多了 有些甚至都有1公尺多长 But back then they were way larger, some were up to a meter across.
这些大的昆虫曾经翱翔天空 The largest insects ever to take to the skies.
在这个大体型的世界里氧气富足 But in this over-sized world, pumped with oxygen,
但统治世界的还是植物 the plant kingdom still reigned supreme.
2.3亿年前 Then two hundred and thirty million years ago,
一群动物走出雨林 a new group of animals emerged from the shadows of the swampy forests.
恐龙 The dinosaurs.
是肉食动物 It's the meat eaters that get all the press.
但最新的研究表明在现今发现的700种恐龙中 But recent research has revealed that out of the seven hundred species discovered.
有三分之二是食草的恐龙 Over two thirds were herbivores.
当时由历史上最大的食草龙 Vegetarians ruled, lead by the biggest herbivores in history -
蜥脚龙统治世界 the Sauropods.
为了调查这些巨型恐龙对植物的影响 To investigate the impact of these huge dinosaurs on the plant kingdom...
我们可以看看今天最大的食草动物 ...we can look at the largest herbivore alive today -
非洲大象 the African elephant.
它叫布奇 This is Butch -
重达4吨和成年的非洲公象一般大 he weighs four tons and is about as big as African bull elephants get.
和非洲大象相比 Compared to African elephants,
马丁·桑德古生物学家 (Martin Sander Palaeontologist)
蜥脚龙要大得多 sauropods would have been much bigger -
是大象的10倍大它们完全将非洲大象比下去了 like ten times as much and they would have dwarfed these elephants.
因为它们长长的脖子和尾巴 And they would have appeared even bigger...
它们体型应该是更大的 ...just because of their extremely long necks and long tails.
要支撑这么巨大的体型它们的胃口也是巨大的 And to go with their huge size, sauropods had enormous appetites.
如果我们将布奇和蜥脚龙相比 If we compare how much Butch would have eaten with a very large sauropod.
布奇一天要吃掉两捆稻草 We look at Butch he eats two bales of hay a day...
而蜥脚龙要吃掉的整堆食物 ...and a very large sauropod would have eaten the whole pile that we see here...
则相当于30捆稻草是布奇胃口的15倍 ...that's thirty bales of hay that's fifteen times as much...
蜥脚龙大约重达90吨 ...and it would have weighed in at about ninety tonnes.
它们是群居动物 And sauropods didn't travel alone.
一般是30只蜥脚龙成群结队地共同行走 They roamed the land in herds of thirty or more.
如果蜥脚龙群来了 If a sauropod herd came through -
就会给那里的植物带来巨大的打击 that would have put an enormous predation pressure on the plants...
并且要过很长一段时间那里才会再次变得郁郁葱葱 ...and they would have needed quite some time to recover.
1.5亿年前 A hundred and fifty million years ago -
恐龙们肆无忌惮地蚕食着陆地上植物的叶子 dinosaurs were stripping the land of vast swathes of foliage.
终于植物王国首次遭到来自另一王国的猛烈打击 For the first time, the plant kingdom was under serious attack from another dynasty.
为了还击 To fight back,
植物开始进化出一种武器用以保护它们珍贵的叶子 plants began to evolve a whole arsenal of defences to protect their precious leaves.
最明显的物理防护是针和刺状的树叶 The most obvious being physical weapons like needles and spikes.
有些植物可以分泌化学物质 And some plants also spiced things up with chemical weapons.
这个谷苏铁树的叶子内含神经毒素 Inside the leaves of this Traps Valley cycad is a nerve agent...
当咽下后会导致呕吐 腹泻四肢瘫痪 ...that when ingested causes vomiting and diarrhoea, paralysis of the limbs...
最终会致命 ...and then eventually death.
致命武器还不止这些 And the arms race didn't stop there.
植物进化出了一项新技能 Plants evolved a new tactic.
与其说是防护网不如说是通信网 Not so much a line of defence, as a line of communication.
我们知道当一些植物遭到攻击时 We know that when some plants are attacked -
它们会快速分泌一种毒素来阻止食草动物 they activate a quick-acting toxin that deters herbivores.
现在我们发现这套防御系统更先进了 Now we're discovering that this defence goes even further.
当食草动物在吃它们的时候它们甚至可以提醒其他的同伴 Because plants can actually warn other plants that a herbivore is eating them.
终于艾克斯特大学的科学家们开始倾听这些无声的对话 And at last scientists here at Exeter University are beginning to listen in to this hidden conversation.
他们发现当植物受到袭击时 They've found that when plants are attacked,
它们的叶子会释放出一种看不见的气体 they also release an unseen gas from their leaves.
真是太不可思议了 What it does is extraordinary.
科学家们首次用图像技术记录这种对话的方式 And this will be the first time it's been captured on film using specialist imagery.
科学家们将两棵拟南芥放入一个器皿中 These two Arabidopsis plants are being put inside a chamber.
第三棵植物模拟遭受攻击科学家们在叶子上剪了几刀 A third plant is then cut to mimic an attack.
它也被放进器皿中和那两株完好无损的拟南芥一起 It's added to the undamaged plants.
接着器皿密封了 The chamber is sealed.
那株受伤的拟南芥释放出了一种气体 The plant's leaves are now releasing a gas.
当气体释放时植物们的生物指数正在变化 As they do so their biological activity can be seen changing.
一些神奇的事情发生了 Something remarkable happens.
这些气体引发了其他两株拟南芥的变化 The gas triggers biological activity in the two neighbouring - Arabidopsis plants.
它们收到这样的讯息警告它们保护自己 They have detected the message warning them to protect themselves.
它们并没有互相接触 They're not touching each other...
尼克·斯莫诺夫植物生物化学家 (Nick Smirnoff Plant Biochemist)
但我们却观察到相邻两株植物对气体作出了回应 ...and we've been able to see a response in the neighbouring plant.
因此可以得知某种信号来自于那棵受伤的植物 So that implies some kind of signal has come out of the wounded plant...
并影响着相邻的植物 ...and affected the neighbouring plant.
科学家们并不清楚植物语言的细节 Scientists don't know all the details of this plant language,
但却越来越相信我们身边的植物一直在互相交谈着 but increasingly they believe that there is a constant chatter between plants all around us.
我们越深入研究植物就越发现植物的复杂性 The more we study plants the more we realise how complex they are,
以及它们对环境的高度适应性 how finely tuned they are to their environments.
和能够逃跑的动物不同 They can't move and so they need to stay and defend themselves,
植物们虽不能移动但它们同样需要保护自己 unlike animals who can run away.
2亿年前 For two hundred million years,
恐龙和植物们进行着一场生死之战 the dinosaurs and the plants were locked in a titanic evolutionary battle.
它们各自都想占上风 Each trying to gain the upper hand.
植物们是时候亮出杀手铜了 But It was now that some plants played their trump card.
有些树木长得越来越高 They used wood to grow taller and taller.
这里是加利福尼亚的内华达山脉 Here in California's Sierra Nevada,
生物学家吉姆·斯宾科勒正研究地球上最大的树种 biologist Jim Spickler studies the most massive trees in the world.
这是其中最大的一种 This is the grandest example of them all -
巨杉 the Giant Sequoia.
这个高度是我们想象不到的 What you see is just impossible for your mind to process,
它实在是太大了 the scale is so large.
哇 我们到了这里是距地面85公尺的高处 Wow here we are eighty five metres up in a very impressive tree.
吉姆·坎贝尔 斯宾科勒树木研究员 (Jim Campbell-Spickler Tree Researcher)
这株巨杉已经存在了1500年 This giant sequoia has been here for over fifteen hundred years.
巨杉树又大又高 Giant sequoia trees are incredibly large and they also can get very tall.
它们之所以能又大又高是因为它们够老 The reason that they can do that is just that they're really old trees.
已经活了上千年了 They live thousands of years.
年轻些的小巨杉就是在下面那边的小尖树 The younger trees down here, the nice pointy top trees,
它们的生活才刚开始可能只有80到100岁 they're just starting their lives, they may still be eighty to a hundred years old.
再长个100年 But in another hundred years,
它们就开始有这些奇特的形状了 they're really going to start to get this very unique shape.
这真是个美丽的丛林 It's a beautiful forest to be in.
7千万年前巨杉的祖先们 Seventy million years ago the ancestors of this type of tree -
针叶树它们甚至更高 the conifers - got ever taller.
它们将植物的结构发挥到极致 This was the ultimate in plant construction.
针叶树的树叶长得很高一般是够不到的 Conifers like these raised their precious leaves out of reach.
这样恐龙不再是地球上最大的生物了 The dinosaurs were no longer the biggest organisms on earth.
它的地位已经被这些巨杉取代了 That title had been well and truly won back by these giants of the plant kingdom.
巨杉能产生大量的木头 Giant sequoias have the capacity to put on an incredible amount of wood.
每年它可以增长1立方公尺的木头量 Some of the largest trees that we know of can put on up to a cubic metre of wood a year...
那几乎就是树木的整个表皮 ...and that's over the entire surface of the tree.
这些树生长的速度很快 These trees are growing incredibly fast.
巨杉的高度能使其他的植物都相形见细 Using wood to grow this tall meant the trees could eclipse all the other plants...
它们也能吸收最强的太阳光 ...and have the first pick of the sun's strongest light.
对植物来说阳光就意味着一切 And for plants, light means success.
如果你有一张7千万年前恐龙时代的卫星图片 If you had a satellite image of the dinosaur era seventy million years ago,
那么你能看到当时地球的场景是之前没有过的 you would see the Earth like it had never been before...
之后也不可能再重演 ...and never would be again.
当时的气候很温暖两极是没有冰川的 The climate was so warm the poles had no ice.
相反地那些地方都被针叶林覆盖了 Instead they were covered with conifers:
这是一片广袤的极地丛林 a vast polar forest.
当时的巨杉 And the mighty sequoia trees...
和今天不同它们不止生长在内华达山脉 ...were not just found in small areas of the Sierra Nevada as they are today.
它们的足迹遍布全世界 They were global -
从太平洋沿岸到澳洲内陆地区 stretching along the pacific coast and as far south as Australia.
啊 多么不凡的树口啊 Ahh what a great tree.
想到仅仅是一种气体 It's staggering to think that using just a gas -
二氧化碳 Carbon dioxide.
和一种液体水 And a liquid - Water
结合来自太阳的阳光 together with light energy from beyond our world,
就能长出90公尺高的大木头这真是不可思议 you can construct a cathedral of wood, ninety metres tall.
自从巨杉出现后 Since they first appeared,
植物和它们的祖先彻底改变了我们的星球 plants and their ancestors had revolutionised our planet.
它们为大气层创造了氧气 They created oxygen for the atmosphere...
也让它们立身于大陆地区 ...which had allowed them to conquer the land,
它们将岩石变为土壤 and transform rock into soil.
反过来也为其他生物提供养分 ...In turn fuelling the explosion of all life.
从此植物让贫瘠的地球生机勃勃 From a barren alien planet, plants had made a living Earth.
地球本应该就这样继续 And left on its own,
自我变化下去 the world would have continued like this,
恐龙和无尽的丛林应该统治这个世界 dominated by large dinosaurs and endless forests.
但6千5百万年前一个偶然的事件改变了这一切 But sixty five million years ago a chance event would change all that.
小行星的到来灭绝了恐龙 An asteroid would kill off the dinosaurs,
却使得一种新的植物兴盛起来 and lead to the triumph of a whole new group of plants -
它们就是花 flowers.
开花植物改变了动物和植物间的联系 Flowering plants transformed the bond between animal and plant,
也改变着地球本身 even sculpting the very planet itself.
最终植物将推动人类的历史 Ultimately, plants would drive our human story,
引发人类文明的诞生 and trigger the birth of civilisation.