There are plans to start building offshore marine renewable energy devices throughout the Mediterranean and the Adriatic has been identified as a key location for wind farm developments. The development of offshore wind farms in the area would provide hard substrata for the settlement of sessile benthos. Since the seafloor of the Adriatic is predominantly sedimentary this may alter the larval connectivity of benthic populations in the region. Here, we simulated the release of larvae from benthic populations along the coasts of the Adriatic Sea using coupled bio-physical models and investigated the effect of pelagic larval duration on dispersal. Our model simulations show that currents typically carry particles from east to west across the Adriatic, whereas particles released along western coasts tend to remain there with the Puglia coast of Italy acting as a sink for larvae from benthic populations. We identify areas of high connectivity, as well as areas that are much more isolated, and discuss how these results can be used to inform marine spatial planning and the licensing of offshore marine renewable energy developments.
This study highlights an important and previously overlooked summer North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) influence over the eastern Mediterranean. The featured analysis is based on a synergistic use of reanalysis data, satellite retrievals, and coastal and buoy meteorological observations. The physical mechanisms at play reveal a strong summer NAO involvement on the pressure fields over northern Europe and the Anatolian plateau. Especially during August, the summer NAO modulates the Anatolian low, together with the air temperature, meridional atmospheric circulation, and cloudiness over the eastern Mediterranean. Including the dominant action centers over Greenland and the Arctic, the identified modulations rank among the strongest summer NAO-related signals over the entire Northern Hemisphere.
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