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Abstract:The analysis of the mixing processes involving water masses on the Ross Sea continental shelf is one of the goals of the CLIMA project (Climatic Long-term Interactions for the Mass balance in Antarctica). This paper uses extended Optimum MultiParameter analysis (OMP), which is applied to four datasets collected during the cruises of 1994/95, 1995/96, 1997/98 and 2000/01 in the Ross Sea (Antarctica). Data include both hydrological, (temperature, salinity, and pressure; T, S, and P, respectively) and chemical parameters (O 2 , Si(OH) 4 , PO 4 , and NO 3 +NO 2 ). The OMP analysis is based on the assumption that the mixing is a linear process which affects all parameters equally so that each sample shows physical/chemical properties that are the result of the mixing of some properly selected Source Water Types (SWTs). OMP thus evaluates the best set of contributions by all SWTs to each sample, and allows the spatial distribution and structure of the water masses in a basin to be evaluated. Ocean circulation may subsequently be inferred by means of a deeper analysis of the spreading of the water mass. In this study, the "real" Redfield ratios observed in the Ross Sea were used to correct the equations referring to the chemical parameters in accordance with the extended version of OMP. The solutions include some physically realistic constraints. The results allow a detailed description of the water mass distribution, validated through comparison with some "canonical" thermohaline characteristics of the Ross Sea hydrology. In particular our results verify the spreading of the HSSW over the entire continental shelf and emphasize the key role it plays in the ventilation of the deep waters outside the Ross Sea. In addition a description is given of the intrusion of relatively warm waters coming from the open ocean and flowing at some specific locations at the continental shelf break. isobath, runs NW-SE and links the area in front of Cape Adare to Cape Colbeck. Some depressions in the inner area are deeper than the continental shelf break, and therefore behave as reservoirs of the salty and dense waters.The Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is carried by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) along the boundary of the Ross Sea, following the shelf slope from east to west. CDW strongly influences the thermohaline circulation of this basin, being the only water mass which provides heat to the shelf waters (Jacobs et al. 1985, Locarnini 1994, Jacobs & Giulivi 1998, Gouretsky 1999. In some specific locations it intrudes onto the Ross continental shelf forming, after the interaction with the shelf waters, the modified CDW (MCDW), which can be identified by a subsurface maximum temperature and minimum dissolved oxygen (Jacobs et al. 1985, Locarnini 1994, Budillon et al. 1999.On the western side of the Ross Sea, the physical features of the water column are also affected by the recurring presence of a substantial coastal ice free area, the Terra Nova Bay polynya (Bromwich & Kurtz 1984, Jacobs et al. 1985, Fusco et al. 2...

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The circulation of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea is characterized by numerous recurrent or permanent anticyclonic structures, which modulate the pathway of the main currents and the exchange of the water masses in the basin. This work aims to describe the main circulation structures and thermohaline properties of the Eastern Mediterranean with particular focus on two anticyclones, the Pelops and the Cyprus gyres, using in-situ (drifters and Argo floats) and satellite (altimetry) data. The Pelops gyre is involved in the circulation and exchange of Levantine origin surface and intermediate waters and in their flow toward the Ionian and the Adriatic Sea. The Cyprus Gyre presents a marked interannual variability related to the presence/absence of waters of Atlantic origin in its interior. These anticyclones are characterized by double diffusive instability and winter mixing phenomena driven by salty surface waters of Levantine origin. Conditions for the salt finger regime occur steadily and dominantly within the Eastern Mediterranean anticyclones. The winter mixing is usually observed in December–January, characterized by instability conditions in the water column, a gradual deepening of the mixed layer depth and the consequent downward doming of the isohalines. The mixing generally involves the first 200 m of the water column (but occasionally can affect also the intermediate layer) forming a water mass with well-defined thermohaline characteristics. Conditions for salt fingers also occur during mixing events in the layer below the mixed layer.

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Abstract. Assessing the potential improvement of basin scale ecosystem forecasting for the Mediterranean Sea requires biochemical data assimilation techniques. To this aim, a feasibility study of surface biomass assimilation is performed following an identical twin experiment approach. NPZD ecosystem data generator, embedded in one eighth degree general circulation model, is integrated with the reduced-order optimal interpolation System for Ocean Forecasting and Analysis.The synthetic "sea-truth" data are winter daily averages obtained from the control run (CR). The twin experiments consist in performing two runs: the free run (FR) with summer-depleted phytoplankton initial conditions and the assimilated run (AR), in which, starting from the same FR phytoplankton concentrations, weekly surface biomasses averaged from the CR data are assimilated. The FR and AR initial conditions modify the winter bloom state of the phytoplankton all over the basin and reduce the total nitrogen, i.e. the energy of the biochemical ecosystem.The results of this feasibility study shows good performance of the system in the case of phytoplankton, zooplankton, detritus and surface inorganic nitrogen. The weak results in the case of basin inorganic nitrogen and total nitrogen, the latter nonperformant at surface, are discussed.

Abstract. In this work, the relative importance of nitrogen and phosphorus, considered as external loads, on Mediterranean biogeochemical cycles is evaluated. Biomass concentrations are analysed considering the steady state response of the three-dimensional ECHYM model to three nitrogen and phosphorus atmospheric depositions, considered as continuous in time. After reaching stationary evolutions, chlorophyll surficial maps and vertical transects are compared with existing datasets, showing a good agreement at their large scale sampling. The distributions of nutrients within the biochemical compartments are analysed, highlighting, inside the Mediterranean oligotrophic environment, the role played by ultraplankton, the smaller phytoplankton compartment. For all the three different atmospheric loads, western primary production estimation is about twice than that in the eastern basin, while western secondary production is about three times the eastern one. This numerical exercise suggests that the Eastern Mediterranean, cycling at low nutrient sill, is eventually pushed toward an higher nutrient depletion, when loading new nitrogen and phosphorus.

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