Changes in Atlantic Water characteristics in the south-eastern Mediterranean Sea as a result of natural and anthropogenic activities

The paper investigates the changes in the characteristics of Atlantic Water (AW) flowing eastwards along the Egyptian coast in the south-eastern Mediterranean during the period 1959–2008.Vertically, only one water mass could be observed in winter in the upper 200m layer, whereas in summer, there were three distinct water masses. The subsurface water mass, of Atlantic origin, occupying the 50–150m layer and characterized by low salinities from < 38.60 to 38.80 PSU, moves throughout the study area from west to east and spreads over a range of density between 27.5 and 28.5σt.Temperature and salinity have indicated increasing trends for both temperature and salinity during the last 25years (1983–2008), reaching 0.85°C decade−1 and 0.073 PSU dec−1, respectively, for the Mediterranean surface waters. For the Atlantic water, the trends were 0.28°C dec−1 for temperature and 0.014 PSU dec−1 for salinity