By Sid Perkins
A decrease in precipitation over the Pacific Ocean just north of Hawaii in recent years has left the ocean there saltier and has diminished its capacity to soak up planet-warming carbon dioxide, a new analysis shows.
Each month since the late 1980s, researchers have recorded ocean conditions about 100 kilometers north of Oahu, far enough out that waters aren’t affected by nutrients washed from any island. At 5 km deep, the water at this site–which scientists have dubbed station ALOHA–has ocean layers that mix just as much as they do in more remote waters, says David M. Karl, a biogeochemist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.