There is growing concern among scientists about the consequences of ocean acidification on marine life around the world.

Much of the filming for Roger Harrabin's series of special reports on the issue for BBC News was done underwater.

Cameraman Tony Fallshaw explains the specialist equipment used to record underwater footage, as the team shot one such sequence.

Five metres beneath the waves in the Red Sea is a "coral laboratory" in the guise of a long steel table arrayed like a plant nursery with ranks of near-identical specimens.

BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin dived down to explain how the corals were being cultivated for experiments into ocean acidification.

The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science in Eilat, Israel, is carrying out a series of experiments to see how different species of coral could be affected by ocean acidification.

Roger Harrabin spoke to lead researcher Dr Maoz Fine about the tests and the team's findings so far.

The volcanic island of Ischia, off the Italian coast, has natural carbon dioxide (CO2) vents, meaning the surrounding seawater is more acidic.

As Roger Harrabin explains, this should give scientists a better idea of how species will cope with acidification.

Some of the leading research into the impacts of increasing levels of acidification is being carried out by scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in south-west England.

Researcher Dr Steve Widdicombe demonstrates how his laboratory tests mussels to see how they will respond to increasing acidity as CO2 emissions rise.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version