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Is the Adriatic returning to dominate the production of Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water?
Author(s) -
Klein Birgit,
Roether Wolfgang,
Civitarese Giuseppe,
Gacic Miroslav,
Manca Beniamino B.,
d'Alcala Maurizio Ribera
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl011620
Subject(s) - water mass , mediterranean climate , salinity , upwelling , saline water , dilution , oceanography , mediterranean sea , deep water , environmental science , geology , tracer , seawater , hydrology (agriculture) , geography , archaeology , physics , geotechnical engineering , nuclear physics , thermodynamics
Since the Aegean took over the deep water production of the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 1980s, the proficiency of the Adriatic as a formation site has been under question. The salt supply in the intermediate water enabling the Adriatic to produce dense water was diminished because of a salinity decrease by upwelling mid‐depth waters. Tracer data indeed indicate that the deep layer in the Adriatic has not been ventilated for most of the 1990s. The data presented also show that the dilution of the intermediate water reached a peak in 1995, after which more ventilated and saline waters were added. The recent increase of salt supply to the Adriatic by an extremely saline intermediate water mass supplied from the Aegean, establishes the preconditioning required to resume dense water production in the Adriatic.