No two islands look the same with human kind of impacts removed. Coral polyps are a classic example of something we call symbiosis, living together. There is a lot of tension between the little green structures inside corals and the coral itself. They just leave each other out in the sun or when there's been a big storm on a reef.
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.