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In Our Time

Corals

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

With

Steve Jones Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College London

Nicola Foster Lecturer in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth

And

Gareth Williams Associate Professor in Marine Biology at Bangor University School of Ocean Sciences

Producer Simon Tilllotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.0

Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.

0:07.6

There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our

0:10.9

programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.

0:14.9

I hope you enjoyed the programs.

0:16.6

Hello, whenever shipwrecked sailors find sanctuary on a desert island under a coconut

0:20.8

palm, they can thank coral.

0:23.2

These tiny undersea creatures once dead, leave behind stony skeletons and more corals

0:28.6

grow on those until they form a mountain.

0:30.7

He speak above the water, the sailor on that peak.

0:33.8

Meanwhile, the submerged corals, sometimes called the Rainforest Surveillance Team with

0:38.3

Life, or in the case of many, did team until killed by rising water, acidity and temperatures

0:44.0

and the great storms that come with climate change.

0:46.4

When we discuss coral are Nicola Foster, lecturer in marine biology at the University of

0:51.3

Plymouth, Gareth Williams, Associate Professor in Marine Biology at Banger University School

0:56.0

of Ocean Sciences and Steve Jones, Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College

1:01.2

London.

1:02.2

Steve Jones, what did Charles Darwin notice from the Beagle when looking at coral islands?

1:08.8

I think it was a very important moment for him because nobody had before had really understood

1:15.4

how a coral island could spring out from a deep ocean because corals need the light to

1:22.2

grow.

1:23.2

So how could they grow towards the surface when it obviously hits pitch black along

...

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