Physical forcing and physical/biochemical variability of the Mediterranean Sea: a review of unresolved issues and directions for future research

Abstract

Abstract. This paper is the outcome of a workshop held in Rome in November 2011 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the POEM (Physical Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean) program. In the workshop discussions, a number of unresolved issues were identified for the physical and biogeochemical properties of the Mediterranean Sea as a whole, i.e., comprising the Western and Eastern sub-basins. Over the successive two years, the related ideas were discussed among the group of scientists who participated in the workshop and who have contributed to the writing of this paper.Three major topics were identified, each of them being the object of a section divided into a number of different subsections, each addressing a specific physical, chemical or biological issue:1. Assessment of basin-wide physical/biochemical properties, of their variability and interactions.2. Relative importance of external forcing functions (wind stress, heat/moisture fluxes, forcing through straits) vs. internal variability.3. Shelf/deep sea interactions and exchanges of physical/biogeochemical properties and how they affect the sub-basin circulation and property distribution.Furthermore, a number of unresolved scientific/methodological issues were also identified and are reported in each sub-section after a short discussion of the present knowledge. They represent the collegial consensus of the scientists contributing to the paper. Naturally, the unresolved issues presented here constitute the choice of the authors and therefore they may not be exhaustive and/or complete. The overall goal is to stimulate a broader interdisciplinary discussion among the scientists of the Mediterranean oceanographic community, leading to enhanced collaborative efforts and exciting future discoveries.

Paleoclimate and paleoceanography over the past 20,000 yr in the Mediterranean Sea Basins as indicated by sediment elemental proxies

“…The use of these proxies has recently increased due to technical advances, such as X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) core scanners. Numerous paleoclimate studies have provided important information on regional and global scale patterns of climate variability in the Mediterranean region (e.g., Abrantes et al, 2012;Lionello, 2012;Malanotte-Rizzoli et al, 2014) (Fig. 1, Table Supplementary material).…”

Improving Mesoscale Altimetric Data From a Multitracer Convolutional Processing of Standard Satellite-Derived Products

“…Yet, horizontal scales below 100km remain scarcely resolved. Especially, in the Mediterranean Sea, an important fraction of mesoscale range, characterized by a small Rossby radius of deformation, 15-20 km a factor of 2-4 less than in the Global Ocean [23,19]. This scale range, which plays a major role both in the general ocean circulation through Eddy-Mean interactions as well as for ocean biogeochemistry and biology [5,24], is not revealed by altimeter-derived L4 products, which rely on optimal interpolation of along-track altimeter data [22,21].…”

Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes

“…The importance of the Mediterranean Sea for the global ocean system stems from its possible impact on the circulation and characteristics of the Atlantic Ocean and consequently on the global thermohaline circulation cell. A large number of studies support the global importance of the Mediterranean Sea [e.g., Malanotte-Rizzoli and Robinson, 1988;Robinson and Golnaraghi, 1994;Robinson et al, 2001;Malanotte-Rizzoli et al, 2014].…”