Vertical redistribution of salt and layered changes in global ocean salinity

Abstract

Salinity is an essential proxy for estimating the global net freshwater input into the ocean. Due to the limited spatial and temporal coverage of the existing salinity measurements, previous studies of global salinity changes focused mostly on the surface and upper oceans. Here, we examine global ocean salinity changes and ocean vertical salt fluxes over the full depth in a dynamically consistent and data-constrained ocean state estimate. The changes of the horizontally averaged salinity display a vertically layered structure, consistent with the profiles of the ocean vertical salt fluxes. For salinity changes in the relatively well-observed upper ocean, the contribution of vertical exchange of salt can be on the same order of the net surface freshwater input. The vertical redistribution of salt thus should be considered in inferring changes in global ocean salinity and the hydrological cycle from the surface and upper ocean measurements.