This is an episode from our new podcast, It Starts With... available on Apple, Spotify and ConnectSci.

If you enjoy this, check out part 2 of our turtles chat on It Starts With...

Australia’s freshwater turtles are some of the country’s most fascinating and under-appreciated animals.

They can live for decades, survive incredible injuries, help clean river systems and in some cases even breathe underwater through specialised adaptations. But despite how remarkable they are, turtle populations across Australia are quietly declining and most people do not even realise it is happening.

In this first of a two-part panel episode, David Boldeman is joined by turtle experts Deb Bower, James Van Dyke, Michael Thompson and Ricky Spencer to explore why turtles are so important, the surprising biology behind how they survive, and the growing challenges they face.

Deb, James, Mike and Ricky co-author the book The Mystery of the Missing Turtles with Elizabeth Hale and illustrator James O'Hanlon. The book is published by CSIRO Publishing and is available in print or eBook.

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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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