Kauai

In collaboration with PMEL, the lab of University of Hawaii oceanographer Christopher Sabine has installed a moored buoy off of Poipu, Kauai. This station autonomously monitors water quality, with a particular focus on parameters to measure ocean acidification, including pH and partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the ocean water and air. The ocean carbon measurements collected every three hours also include other measures of water quality: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, and turbidity. The data are transmitted by satellite and are also available online through the PacIOOS Water Quality Buoys site. This is one of three moorings funded as part of a 2022 gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology to improve Hawaii’s ocean health.

There are currently two similar buoys in Kāne‘ohe Bay, O‘ahu, which have been deployed for over a decade (CRIMP2 and Kaneohe) as well as new sites in Maui and Hawaii Island.

Plots of surface water and atmospheric CO2 and surface water pH: