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Deep sea exploration

Helen Czerski explores life in the extreme ocean depths with a panel of deep sea biologists. What does the deep ocean biosphere do for us and what's at stake if it's damaged?

UCL oceanographer Helen Czerski explores life in the ocean depths with a panel of deep sea biologists. They take us to deep ocean coral gardens on sea mounts, to extraordinary hydrothermal vent ecosystems teeming with weird lifeforms fed by chemosynthetic microbes, to the remarkable biodiversity in the muds of the vast abyssal plains.

Helen's guests are Adrian Glover of the Natural History Museum in London, Kerry Howell of Plymouth University and Alex Rogers, scientific director of REV Ocean.

They discuss the dramatic revelations made by deep ocean explorers in just the last forty years, and the profound connections that the deep sea floor has with life at the Earth's surface. They also consider the threats to the ecosystems down there from seabed mining and climate change.

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

Picture: Black smoker hydrothermal vents, Credit: Science Photo Library

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37 minutes

Last on

Mon 21 Feb 2022 01:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 14 Feb 2022 20:32GMT
  • Mon 14 Feb 2022 21:32GMT
  • Tue 15 Feb 2022 04:32GMT
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  • Tue 15 Feb 2022 13:32GMT
  • Tue 15 Feb 2022 18:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Feb 2022 01:32GMT

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