TRANSCRIPT (EN)
00:00:00 Robert:
Hi there, Rob here.
00:00:02 Robert:
This episode is part of a bilingual children’s podcast series for National Hispanic Heritage Month, a collaboration between PBS Nature and Cumbre Kids.
00:00:10 Robert:
This series features scientists from leading museums, zoos, and aquariums across the United States, responding to questions submitted by listening children 3 to 10 years old.
00:00:20 Robert:
These episodes appear on the podcast’s Orbit, Science for Kids on the Move, Cráneos: Ciencia para Niños Curiosos, and Camaleón, Animales para niños Curiosos.
00:00:30 Robert:
They are podcasts for families with children 3 to 10 years old and can be found on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:00:38 Robert:
Just a heads up, this episode is in Spanish.
00:00:41 Robert:
We hope you enjoy.
00:00:46 Katherin:
Hi Cráneos, today I went out for a walk in the forest, there are a bunch of trees.
00:00:53 Katherin:
All different, and I found blue and orange butterflies. I also walked past a river that sounds super loud.
00:01:05 Katherin:
As I see all of this, I wonder, is this what we call biodiversity?
00:01:12 Niños:
Hi Cráneos.
00:01:14 Niños:
And my question is, what is biodiversity? What are ecosystems? How can we take care of biodiversity? Greetings!
00:01:26 Katherin:
Great questions, Cráneos, we have someone who can help us.
00:01:33 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Hello everyone, my name is Ana Luz, Ana Luz Porzecanski. I am a biologist and I study biodiversity and how to conserve it. I work in a museum — the American Museum of Natural History, which is in New York, in the United States. And besides science, I love art, ceramics, cooking, and singing, preferably with my two daughters.
00:01:59 Katherin:
How fascinating, Doctor Ana! I love that you combine science, art, and family.
00:02:06 Katherin:
And of course, being a biologist and studying biodiversity, I think you’re the perfect person to help us understand it better.
00:02:17 Eduardo:
Hi Cráneos, I’m Eduardo from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and my question is, what is biodiversity?
00:02:27 Alma:
Hi, I’m Alma, I’m five and a half years old, and I live in the United States. And my question is, why is biodiversity important for the planet?
00:02:42 Luisa:
Hi Cráneos, I’m Luisa, I’m nine years old, and my question is, what is biodiversity and why is it so important?
00:02:51 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Thank you very much for the questions, kids. Let’s go step by step. The word biodiversity has two parts.
00:03:00 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
“Bio,” which means life, coming from Greek, and “diversity,” which means variety or difference and comes from Latin. Therefore, biodiversity is the variety of life on our planet, and it encompasses all forms of life — from the tiniest ones, like microbes or little ants, to the largest ones, like big trees and whales.
00:03:27 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
And of course, we humans are also part of biodiversity.
00:03:32 Katherin:
In other words, biodiversity is the variety of living beings that make the planet a full and lively place.
00:03:40 Katherin:
Although, surely there are those who give it other, more creative names, right?
00:03:47 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
You know, Katherin, that different people and cultures talk about biodiversity in other ways as well. For example, calling it nature or Mother Earth. And one of my colleagues, whose name is Robin, calls it in a very poetic way that I want to share with you. She calls biodiversity the imagination of the Earth.
00:04:10 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Beautiful, isn’t it?
00:04:11 Katherin:
Yes, it sounds beautiful, Doctor Ana. But Cráneos, it’s not just something that sounds nice. Thanks to biodiversity, we have a planet full of colors, sounds, and flavors. Imagine a world without birds singing.
00:04:29 Katherin:
Without colorful flowers or without fruits.
00:04:33 Katherin:
And even more — without clean air, without a variety of foods, without fresh water, or without medicines. Every plant, every animal, even every tiny bug, has a role that makes life work.
00:04:48 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
For example, plants and phytoplankton — which are the tiniest little plants in the ocean — give us the oxygen we breathe. So every breath we take is thanks to biodiversity.
00:05:04 Katherin:
Forests and wetlands clean and recycle the water we drink and use every day.
00:05:12 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Look around you — how many things in your house are made of wood?
00:05:17 Katherin:
What did you have for breakfast this morning?
00:05:19 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
I can assure you that, one way or another, you had biodiversity for breakfast.
00:05:25 Katherin:
For sure! Cráneos, biodiversity is everywhere, and we all play a role. Without biodiversity, there would be no life. And all that life needs a place to coexist. We call those places ecosystems.
Let’s say it again: ecosystems.
00:05:50 Katherin:
Can you repeat it with me on the count of three? 1, 2, 3.
00:05:56 Katherin:
Ecosystems! Very good!
We’re going to discover more about them after our mystery sound.
00:06:04 Katherin:
Attention, Cráneos, it’s time to sharpen your ears. Listen carefully, because this is the mystery sound.
Are you ready? I’m going to play it now.
00:06:22 Katherin:
Listen one more time.
00:06:29 Katherin:
Here are your options:
A. It’s the sound of cheese being grilled — mmm, so yummy!
Or
B. It’s the sound of sand sliding down.
Do you have it?
Keep your answer until the end.
And adults, remember you can send us questions from your curious Cráneos! Some of them might appear in a future episode. I’ll leave the link in the description.
00:06:58 Elena:
Hi Cráneos! My name is Elena, I’m five years old, I live in Mexico City, and my question is: what are ecosystems?
00:07:09 Erick:
Hi, I’m Erick, I live in Chiapas, I’m four years old, and my question is: what is an ecosystem?
00:07:15 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Good question, Elena and Erick.
00:07:18 Katherin:
Yes, excellent questions, Cráneos! We’ve already seen that biodiversity is all the variety of living beings.
00:07:28 Katherin:
Well, ecosystems are the places where all of them live and interact — like forests, rivers,
00:07:38 Katherin:
the ocean,
00:07:41 Katherin:
the jungle,
00:07:42 Katherin:
or even a garden.
00:07:45 Katherin:
In every ecosystem, plants, animals, insects, and even microbes work together like a big team to make life function.
00:07:58 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
The important thing is that all the members of this ecosystem are connected.
00:08:03 Katherin:
How interesting, Doctor. And I wonder, is there another way to see or understand what an ecosystem is?
00:08:11 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Another way to think about these connections — which I personally love — is to imagine an ecosystem as if it were a tapestry or a piece of cloth made of many threads, all interwoven and intertwined.
It’s those connections that keep the fabric whole, preventing it from tearing easily.
00:08:34 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Each thread holds the others in place, and in that way, a healthy ecosystem, for example, keeps pests under control.
Even though we can’t see that fabric, it surrounds us every day — it’s our safety net.
00:08:51 Katherin:
Exactly, Dr. Ana. That’s why biodiversity and ecosystems go hand in hand.
00:08:58 Katherin:
Life needs a place to live, and that place is filled with all those plants and animals that make it special.
But of course, with so much variety, how do scientists know how many species there are in a place?
That’s exactly the question from one of our Cráneos. Let’s hear from our dear Elsa — go ahead.
00:09:22 Elsa:
Hi, I’m Elsa, and I’m from Argentina. How do scientists know how many species are in a place?
00:09:33 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Yes, very good question, Elsa.
To know how many species are in a place, well, we count them!
But before going out to count, we have to prepare.
First, we need to do our homework — study what is already known about an ecosystem so we know which species we expect to find there.
00:09:55 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
What do the people who live there know? They are usually the ones who know the most about an ecosystem.
00:10:01 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
What has been counted or found there before?
We can also learn this from museum collections — like the museum where I work.
What do other scientists know that they can share with us?
By asking these questions, we can prepare better because counting butterflies is very different from counting bats.
00:10:23 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
And besides visiting ecosystems in person, we can also use new technologies, like camera traps that activate when something moves in a forest, for example, or automatic sound recorders, drones, or even satellites.
All these technologies help us count species from afar.
00:10:47 Katherin:
Something important, Cráneos, is that scientists cannot count every animal and plant one by one — that would be impossible.
What they do is study a small part of the ecosystem, like a sample, and with the help of mathematics and lots of data, they calculate how many species might exist in the whole area.
00:11:13 Katherin:
As the doctor said, they use cameras, sound recordings, and even harmless traps to identify animals that are not easily seen.
Scientists really do very, very hard work.
However, those figures are not exact — they are approximate.
00:11:36 Katherin:
The exciting thing about all this is that it means there is still so much to document — plants, insects, and even animals that we have not yet described.
00:11:47 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
I have a colleague, for example, here at the museum, and this is pretty funny — she studies gibbons.
They are primate apes that live in Asia and very high up in the trees.
Do you know what she uses to count and study them? Their poop!
00:12:06 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Or as others might say, their poo, which falls from the trees.
And when they poop, part of their own cells stick to it, and those cells can be analyzed in a laboratory to identify which species of primate it is.
00:12:23 Katherin:
Doctor, so in the end, even poop tells stories.
What a curious way to investigate!
00:12:31 Katherin:
And Cráneos, speaking of research, I remembered a story from a long, long time ago.
Let’s activate our imagination and travel back almost 200 years.
00:12:45 Katherin:
3, 2, 1… traveling!
00:12:56 Katherin:
Cráneos, we’re in the year 1835.
A young scientist named Charles Darwin, after many days at sea,
00:13:12 Katherin:
arrived at a place full of life — the Galápagos Islands.
While exploring the beach, he saw something that left him with his mouth wide open.
00:13:24 Charles:
What? Incredible! They’re iguanas swimming in the sea — I’ve never seen anything like this.
00:13:30 Katherin:
They were marine iguanas, with strong claws to cling to rocks and teeth designed to eat algae underwater.
Charles couldn’t stop observing them and taking notes.
00:13:47 Charles:
Hmm… but how is this possible?
The iguanas I know live on land and eat plants, but these are different.
They seem made for the sea.
00:13:59 Katherin:
Later, on another island, he found their cousins — land iguanas that couldn’t swim and fed on cactus.
Charles compared the two and described in his notebook how animals could adapt to the places where they lived.
00:14:20 Katherin:
That observation was recorded in his notes and, over time, became one of the clues that led him to propose the theory of evolution — one of the most influential ideas in science.
00:14:38 Martín:
Hi, I’m Martín, I’m three years old, I live in Jamundí, Colombia, and my question is: what would happen if all the little animals in the world disappeared?
00:14:53 Bruno:
Hi, I’m Bruno, I’m seven years old, and I’d like to know: how do humans affect biodiversity?
00:15:00 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
It’s true that many of our activities are causing pollution and destroying ecosystems, and therefore, they are causing species and biodiversity to be lost.
00:15:14 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Do you remember I told you that an ecosystem is like a cloth with many interwoven threads?
When we lose biodiversity, we lose those connections.
That fabric unravels, becomes weaker, develops holes, and tears apart.
00:15:32 Katherin:
Cráneos, I learned something interesting that helped me understand the importance of organisms — even the tiniest ones in the world.
Did you know there are flowers that only certain types of insects can pollinate?
00:15:46 Katherin:
That means those insects are key for the flowers to reproduce.
The flowers, let’s say, “depend” on them, and if those insects disappear, those flowers would disappear too. It’s an example of two lessons biodiversity teaches us:
All species depend on one another.
Everyone matters — even the tiniest little bug.
00:16:16 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
This loss of biodiversity can affect our waters,
00:16:21 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
our crops, and can increase the risk of pests or diseases.
00:16:26 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
It also accelerates climate change.
That acceleration makes a changing climate more severe and more unpredictable for us.
There could be more floods, fires, and droughts.
00:16:40 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Excessive heat or rising sea levels make life harder for us and for the other species that share our planet.
00:16:50 Katherin:
Yes, everything in life is connected — like a fabric!
Cráneos, topics like the challenges some ecosystems face sometimes make me feel a bit scared or sad.
It’s okay if you sometimes feel that way too!
At the same time, it reminds me of what a famous scientist named Marie Curie once said:
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less!”
00:17:22 Katherin:
Scientists like Dr. Ana are working hard to understand how we can conserve biodiversity all over the world.
And by understanding biodiversity and ecosystems, you too can be one of those who help protect animals and plants!
That’s one of the reasons I love this question from our Cráneos, César and Jaziel:
00:17:52 César:
Hi Cráneos, I’m César Cantú, I’m five years old, I live in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, and my question is: how can we take care of biodiversity?
Bye Cráneos, greetings!
00:18:09 Jaziel:
Hi Cráneos, my name is Jaziel, I’m six years old, I’m Mexican, and my question is: how can we help conserve biodiversity?
00:18:21 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
César and Jaziel, I love that you want to help biodiversity.
00:18:26 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
We really must take care of nature and support everyone who is caring for it.
There are many ways to do this.
Each of us can commit to consuming less.
00:18:41 Katherin:
Consuming less? What does that mean?
00:18:42 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Fewer things — and that way, we’ll use fewer resources that come from ecosystems, we’ll also use less energy, and, in addition, we’ll reduce waste and pollution.
00:18:56 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
What each of us does is important, but the best thing we can do is act together in the places we care about.
That means finding the part of our fabric — our ecosystem — that is fragile and working to repair it.
00:19:16 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
If, in every corner of the planet, we take care of our biodiversity, together we can repair the entire planet.
There are many humans!
00:19:27 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
It may seem difficult, but remember that humanity has achieved positive changes by working together.
00:19:35 Katherin:
How inspiring, Doctor!
I love thinking that each of us can help, even with small actions, and that together we can make a big difference.
And Doctor, while we’re on this topic, what kinds of jobs exist to care for biodiversity, and how can we get more involved as families or communities?
00:19:59 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Many, many people — thousands and thousands — work to protect biodiversity.
00:20:05 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
And you don’t need to be a scientist to do that.
In fact, remember that the word “ecosystem” contains the word “eco,” which means house.
In other words, it’s about taking care of our home, and we can all do that.
For example, as an architect, you must think about how and where you are going to build.
As a producer, think about where and how you are going to plant.
00:20:32 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
As a consumer, what are you going to buy?
00:20:35 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
You can be a teacher, an artist, an architect, a lawyer, a politician…
The important thing is to make decisions — wherever you work — remembering that what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves, because we are not separate.
We are part of biodiversity.
00:20:57 Katherin:
I love it! Cráneos, see how caring for biodiversity isn’t just for scientists.
But if you do love science, nature, and discovering how life works, you can be one too!
You can become biologists, explorers, environmental engineers, or even researchers who study tiny insects or giant whales.
00:21:24 Katherin:
There are many ways to be scientists of biodiversity.
00:21:27 Dra. Ana Luz Porzecanski:
Kids, it has been a great pleasure to talk with you — and with you, Katherin.
And I remind you that curiosity has no age limit.
Keep asking questions!
00:21:40 Katherin:
What a pleasure, Doctor! Today we learned that biodiversity is all the variety of living beings that make our planet a full and vibrant place.
00:21:50 Katherin:
And that ecosystems are the places where all of them live and connect, like a great tapestry.
Every animal, plant, and even microbes have an important role, and everything is connected.
So, Cráneos, keep observing, asking questions, and discovering!
00:22:11 Katherin:
Now, my dear Cráneos, it’s time to sharpen your ears.
Listen carefully because here comes the mystery sound. I’m going to play it now.
00:22:27 Katherin:
Listen one more time.
00:22:34 Katherin:
Here are your options:
A. It’s the sound of cheese being grilled,
or
B. It’s the sound of sand sliding down.
Do you have it?
It’s the sound of sand sliding down — very good!
What a sharp ear you have!
00:22:51 Katherin:
Good! Now let’s move on to special greetings.
Happy birthday to our Cráneos!
Let’s start with Luna — she loves turtles, whales, and cats.
Also to Amelia, who is very curious. She loves everything about science, and her favorite animal is the pangolin.
00:23:14 Katherin:
They listen to us from Colombia.
And of course, to our Cráneo, David Villarreal — he loves lions.
Happy birthday, Cráneos!
We also send lots of love to Abel Luciano in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico,
to Edgardito in Puerto Rico,
and to Sofía, who listens to us from Mexico City.
As always, thank you for listening, sharing, and being part of this big Cráneo family!
00:23:50 Katherin:
Now, my dears, we’ve reached the end of the episode.
Cráneo is a production of Cumbre Kids.
Robert Carpenter is our executive producer,
Moisés Monsalve, our graphic artist,
Jorge Cedillo, our illustrator,
and I am Katherin Aguilar, producer of this podcast.
We’ll hear each other next week with a completely new episode!
00:24:16 Katherin:
Until then, maintain your curiosity!
