Long-term monitoring programme of the hydrological variability in the Mediterranean Sea: a first overview of the HYDROCHANGES network

Abstract. The long-term monitoring of basic hydrological parameters (temperature and salinity), collected as time series with adequate temporal resolution (i.e. with a sampling interval allowing the resolution of all important timescales) in key places of the Mediterranean Sea (straits and channels, zones of dense water formation, deep parts of the basins), constitute a priority in the context of global changes. This led CIESM (The Mediterranean Science Commission) to support, since 2002, the HYDROCHANGES programme (http//www.ciesm.org/marine/programs/hydrochanges.htm), a network of autonomous conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, deployed on mainly short and easily manageable subsurface moorings, within the core of a certain water mass. The HYDROCHANGES strategy is twofold and develops on different scales. To get information about long-term changes of hydrological characteristics, long time series are needed. But before these series are long enough they allow the detection of links between them at shorter timescales that may provide extremely valuable information about the functioning of the Mediterranean Sea. The aim of this paper is to present the history of the programme and the current set-up of the network (monitored sites, involved groups) as well as to provide for the first time an overview of all the time series collected under the HYDROCHANGES umbrella, discussing the results obtained thanks to the programme.

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Long-term monitoring programme of the hydrological variability in the Mediterranean Sea: a first overview of the HYDROCHANGES network

Ocean Science Discussions ◽

10.5194/osd-9-1741-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 1741-1812 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

K. Schroeder ◽

C. Millot ◽

L. Bengara ◽

S. Ben Ismail ◽

M. Bensi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Time Scales ◽

Sampling Interval ◽

Global Changes ◽

Hydrological Variability ◽

Long Term Monitoring ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Term Monitoring

Abstract. The long-term monitoring of basic hydrological parameters (temperature and salinity), collected as time series with adequate temporal resolution (i.e. with a sampling interval allowing the resolution of all important time scales) in key-places of the Mediterranean Sea (straits and channels, zones of dense water formation, deep parts of the basins), constitute a priority in the context of global changes. This led CIESM (The Mediterranean Science Commission) to support, since 2002, the HYDROCHANGES programme (http://www.ciesm.org/marine/programs/hydrochanges.htm), a network of autonomous conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors, deployed on mainly short and easily manageable sub-surface moorings. The HYDROCHANGES strategy is twofold and develops on different scales. To get information about long-term changes of hydrological characteristics, long time series are needed. But before these series are long enough they allow detecting links between them at shorter time scales that may provide extremely valuable information about the functioning of the Mediterranean Sea. Here we present the history of the programme and the current setup of the network (monitored sites, involved groups) and provide an overview of all the available time series, discussing some of the results obtained thanks to the programme.

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Long-Term Monitoring of Dolphin Biosonar Activity in Deep Pelagic Waters of the Mediterranean Sea

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-017-04608-6 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Francesco Caruso ◽

Giuseppe Alonge ◽

Giorgio Bellia ◽

Emilio De Domenico ◽

Rosario Grammauta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Long Term Monitoring ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Term Monitoring

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Long-term monitoring of space competition among fluorescent and nonfluorescent sea anemones in the Mediterranean Sea

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315407057050 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 87 (4) ◽

pp. 851-852 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jörg Wiedenmann ◽

Alexandra Leutenegger ◽

Silke Gundel ◽

Florian Schmitt ◽

Cecilia D'Angelo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Shallow Water ◽

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Competitive Ability ◽

Sea Anemones ◽

Competition For Space ◽

Long Term Monitoring ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Term Monitoring ◽

Space Competition

The competition for space among fluorescent and nonfluorescent Anemonia species was monitored in the Mediterranean Sea in order to see whether the fluorescent species A. sulcata var. smaragdina was a better competitor in shallow water habitats. Over a period of 11 years, A. sulcata var. smaragdina convincingly out competed the nonfluorescent A. rustica. We thereby found support for the notion that the GFP-like pigments may increase competitive ability in anthozoans.

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Mediterranean Sea climatic indices: monitoring long term variability and climate changes

10.5194/essd-2018-51 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Athanasia Iona ◽

Athanasios Theodorou ◽

Sarantis Sofianos ◽

Sylvain Watelet ◽

Charles Troupin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Time Series ◽

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Salt Content ◽

Climatic Indices ◽

In Situ Observations ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected depth layers as well as their long times series. It is produced from a new high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1/8° regular grid based on historical high quality in situ observations. Ocean heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate in greater detail than ever before that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin. Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net mean volume warming and salting since 1950 with acceleration during the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle indicating that the natural large scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed on to the warming trend. This product is an observations-based estimation of the Mediterranean climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced from in-situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the decadal variability and reveal the long term trends with more accuracy. It can provide a valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the satellite-based products and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of climate-change model simulations contributing thus to a better understanding of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global climate change. The product is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1210100.

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