India, Feb. 20 -- The Southern Indian Ocean off the southwest coast of Australia is one of the saltiest parts of the global ocean. However, climate change is altering the very nature of this section, freshening it, with implications for ocean biodiversity, according to a new study by Colorado University Boulder.

The area of salty seawater has decreased by 30 per cent over the past six decades, representing the most rapid increase in fresh water observed anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the study by Weiqing Han, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at CU Boulder.

"This freshening is equivalent to adding about 60 per cent of Lake Tahoe's worth of freshwater to...