David Boldeman speaks with CSIRO marine biogeochemist Dr Elizabeth Shadwick about one of Australia’s most important long-running ocean climate observation programs, the Southern Ocean Time Series south of Tasmania.

Anchored in waters around 4500 metres deep, this remote ocean observatory allows scientists to measure how the Southern Ocean absorbs heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and how these processes influence the global climate system.

Dr Shadwick explains how carbon dioxide moves from the air into the ocean, how physical circulation and deep water formation can store that carbon away from the atmosphere for decades to centuries, and how the “biological carbon pump” helps move organic carbon into the deep ocean.

The episode also explores the remarkable engineering effort required to deploy and maintain deep-water moorings in harsh Southern Ocean conditions, and what more than two decades of observations are revealing about ocean acidification, natural variability, and the challenge of detecting long-term human impacts in deep ocean ecosystems.

Further reading:

• IMOS Southern Ocean Time Series
• Voyage information and photo gallery
• Australian Antarctic Program Partnership
• Underwater observatory keeps pulse of the Southern Ocean for nearly 30 years

For the latest science news visit https://connectsci.au/news

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Host David Boldeman speaks with ConnectSci science journalist Imma Perfetto about new research that has, for the first time, measured the hearing range of humpback whales in the wild.

The discussion explores why understanding whale hearing is critical, particularly because whales rely heavily on sound for communication, navigation and finding food in the dark ocean environment.

Imma explains that studying Baleen Whale hearing has long been difficult since these massive animals cannot be kept in captivity. This means scientists previously relied on indirect estimates based on anatomy and vocalisation patterns.

Discover how researchers overcame this challenge by adapting a behavioural hearing test used for human infants, broadcasting sound signals to migrating humpback whales off the Queensland coast and observing changes in their behaviour.

For the latest research and discoveries visit https://connectsci.au/news

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David Boldeman is joined by science journalist Ellen Phiddian to explore a deceptively simple question: how do scientists actually know the oceans are warming?

The conversation unpacks the global network of measurements that allow researchers to track heat across the world’s oceans, from early ship-based observations to modern satellite systems and autonomous Argo floats that dive thousands of metres beneath the surface.

Along the way, the episode explains why ocean heat content is one of the most important indicators of climate change, how scientists distinguish long-term warming from natural variability, and why the oceans absorb the vast majority of the excess heat in the Earth’s climate system.

It is a story about evidence, measurement and the remarkable ability of modern science to take the temperature of a changing planet.

For the latest research and discoveries visit https://connectsci.au/news

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