Corals

28 Oct, 2021 570 Biology

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the simple animals which informed Charles Darwin’s first book, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1842. From corals, Darwin concluded that the Earth changed very slowly and was not fashioned by God. Now coral reefs, which some liken to undersea rainforests, are threatened by human activity, including fishing, pollution and climate change.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Steve Jones 22 episodes
    Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College London
  • Nicola Foster No other episodes
    Lecturer in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth
  • Gareth Williams No other episodes
    Associate Professor in Marine Biology at Bangor University School of Ocean Sciences

Reading list

  • Shifting Baselines: The Past and the Future of Ocean Fisheries
    Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Karen E. Alexander and Enric Sala (eds.) (Springer, 2011) Google Books →
  • Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise
    Steve Jones (Abacus, 2008) Google Books →
  • Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir
    Callum Roberts (Profile Books, 2019) Google Books →
  • Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas
    Forest Rohwer with Merry Youle (Plaid Press, 2010) Google Books →
  • Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms under the Sea
    Peter Sale (Yale University Press, 2021) Google Books →
  • Coral Reefs: A Natural History
    Charles Sheppard (Princeton University Press, 2021) Google Books →
  • World Atlas of Coral Reefs
    Mark Spalding (University of California Press, 2001) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0010xnr

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010xnr

Auto-category: 570.1 (Marine biology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello. Whenever shipwrecked sailors find sanctuary on a desert island under a coconut palm, they can thank coral.