InfoCoBuild

Nature's Microworlds

Nature's Microworlds is a BBC documentary series narrated by Steve Backshall, looking at some of the world's most iconic ecosystems. The featured ecosystems include the archipelago of volcanic islands known as the Galapagos, the grasslands of the Serengeti in Africa, the Amazon rainforest covering most of South America, the kelp forest located in California's Monterey Bay, the Okavango Delta where the Okavango River empties into a wetland surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, and the Arctic wilderness of the Svalbard archipelago.

Episode 01 Episode 02 Episode 03 Episode 04 Episode 05

Episode 06 Episode 07 Episode 08 Episode 09 Episode 10

Episode 11 Episode 12

Episode 01 - Galapagos
A visit to arguably the most famous archipelago on earth, the Galapagos. It's home to a myriad of bizarre and unique creatures endemic to these islands - but how did they get here and what is the key to these extraordinary islands that allows them to thrive?

Episode 02 - Serengeti
A look at one of the most famous habitats on the planet, the Serengeti in east Africa, a vast grassland that is home to some of the greatest concentrations of herbivores on the continent. But what is the key to this exceptional grassland that allows such density and diversity?

Episode 03 - Amazon
Steve Backshall lifts the lid on an incredible world of intricate relationships and unexpected hardship in the Amazon rainforest, explores the way that the jungle's inhabitants interact, and reveals a hidden secret that might just be what keeps the whole place alive.

Episode 04 - Monterey Bay
Steve Backshall looks at the unique geography of California's Monterey Bay, its kelp forest bursting with life from microscopic plankton to visiting ocean giants.

Episode 05 - Okavango
Steve Backshall tries to discover just what makes it possible for a river to stop in the middle of a desert. The Okavango is the world's largest inland delta and home to one of Africa's greatest congregations of wildlife, and in asking the difficult questions Steve reveals the astounding secret to its existence.

Episode 06 - Svalbard
Svalbard is cold, dark and foreboding, yet it is home to the world's largest land predator and the most motherly population of large herbivores. But Steve Backshall discovers that the real secret to this palace comes from a very different world.

Episode 07 - Canada's Coastal Forests
Steve Backshall pulls apart the pieces of Canada's remarkable coastal forest to reveal why this ancient sylvan environment is not only home to some of the largest trees on Earth, but also some of the greatest aggregations of top predators in North America.

Episode 08 - Great Barrier Reef
Steve Backshall goes beneath the surface of Australia's Great Barrier Reef to discover the crucial conditions that allowed a tiny coral building block to create the largest living structure on the planet. He unravels the complex mosaic of reef environments to reveal the key to the microworld's success, but discovers that life on this coast is not always easy.

Episode 09 - Namib Desert
Steve Backshall takes us on a journey to the oldest desert in the world, the Namib in south west Africa, where the treacherous Skeleton Coast sees freezing waters meet a sea of spectacular dunes. With temperatures regularly reaching 60 degrees and with little to no rainfall, the animals that live here have to be tough.

Episode 10 - Yellowstone
In the spectacular Yellowstone where wolves, bears, coyotes, bison and elk roam vast grasslands, wetlands and forests, Steve Backshall looks for the answer to a puzzle. Wolves and beavers have little to do with each other so why, when wolves were returned after an absence of 70 years, did the beaver population increase?

Episode 11 - The Deep Sea
Steve Backshall takes us to a place few have ever visited - the deep sea. 99 percent of the space on Earth inhabited by life is under the ocean and almost 90 percent of this is deeper than a kilometre, a place of perpetual darkness and crushing pressure.

Episode 12 - Australia's Red Centre
In Australia's red centre, Steve Backshall reveals two-metre-tall kangaroos, the world's most venomous snake and a burrowing toad living among the throng of animals. Parched by the sun, scorched by fire and prone to unpredictable floods, the heart of this island continent is as inhospitable as it gets.