diff --git a/config_src/infra/FMS2/MOM_io_infra.F90 b/config_src/infra/FMS2/MOM_io_infra.F90
index 8802761774..2c3a5b8ad3 100644
--- a/config_src/infra/FMS2/MOM_io_infra.F90
+++ b/config_src/infra/FMS2/MOM_io_infra.F90
@@ -1524,9 +1524,9 @@ subroutine categorize_axes(fileObj, filename, ndims, dim_names, is_x, is_y, is_t
       if (variable_exists(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)))) then
         cartesian = ""
         if (variable_att_exists(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "cartesian_axis")) then
-          call get_variable_attribute(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "cartesian_axis", cartesian)
+          call get_variable_attribute(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "cartesian_axis", cartesian(1:1))
         elseif (variable_att_exists(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "axis")) then
-          call get_variable_attribute(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "axis", cartesian)
+          call get_variable_attribute(fileobj, trim(dim_names(i)), "axis", cartesian(1:1))
         endif
         cartesian = adjustl(cartesian)
         if ((index(cartesian, "X") == 1) .or. (index(cartesian, "x") == 1)) is_x(i) = .true.