Search

How Mediterranean cyclogenesis, local topography and land-sea distribution interact to produce strong winds? How air-sea fluxes are modulated? How does the Mediterranean Sea response to the atmospheric forcing?

Sustainable development requires the intelligent management of the marine environment, to protect the marine ecosystem, minimise the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic influences, and provide benefits for a wide range of users. Routine ocean monitoring and forecasting based on sound science, long term and adaptive monitoring, and co-operation between nations, is the main tool for such a management. It is necessary to involve all riparian countries in the process of building the Mediterranean monitoring system. The assets and needs of all countries have to be identified, as well as the constraints impeding data exchange and marine observations in the EEZs. The challenge is to build up a new monitoring system based on up-to-date science and technology, and adapted to the specificity of the basin for the benefit of different users in all Mediterranean countries. A strengthened and dedicated linkage between the scientific community and the public authorities is necessary to provide a sound scientific background for policy decisions based on environmental monitoring. Building on these concepts the Mediterranean network to Assess and upgrade the Monitoring and forecasting Activity in the region (MAMA), funded under the EESD Programme of 5th FP and involving a partnership from all the riparian countries, aims to establish the multi-national network that will prepare the institutional linkages and regional platform for such an integrated and sustained monitoring system in the region. The project builds on the trans-national pooling of scientific and technological resources and provides a concerted basin-scale effort towards the planning and design of the initial ocean observing system in the Mediterranean. The system-wide approach of MAMA is expected to trigger an enhanced motivation on the relevance of systematic marine observations for the sustainable and shared use of the marine resources of the Mediterranean Sea. These catalytic ingredients constitute the thrust of MAMA and an enabling asset to the future projection into long-term commitments at governmental level.

Spatial and temporal variability of pigments was studied from the CZCS satellite data and from in-situ chlorophyll and transparency for the period 1979-1985. The three Adriatic sites, Northern, Middle, and Southern Adriatic are differently influenced by meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic parameters. The differences between seasonal in-situ chlorophyll and remotely sensed pigment concentrations (from CZCS satellite data) from the Adriatic are large in winter. Through the correlation analysis, pigments were compared to meteo-oceanographic and hydrological parameters from different Adriatic sites. The PCA (principal component analysis) was applied to the pigment data series and significant components were compared. Different correlations are obtained for warm and cold periods of the year pointing to seasonal differences in the underlying mechanism of pigment variability. The first PC is influenced mainly by temperature. In the warm period more parameters seems to influence the pigment field, than in the cold period. The pigments in the Adriatic are in good correlation to a number of hydrologic and meteo-oceanographic factors.

Pigment spatial and temporal variability was studied from the monthly mean CZCS data set for the Adriatic Sea. The differences between seasonal course of in-situ chlorophyll and remotely sensed pigment concentrations (from CZCS satellite data) from the Adriatic are especially large in winter. However, in-situ chlorophyll changes are in accordance with the course of transparency for the Northern and Middle Adriatic. Increased pigment concentrations may not be only indicators of high biological activity but show the presence of suspended and/or dissolved matter whose signals may interfere. The Northern Italian rivers (especially the Po River) intensely supply Northern Adriatic with nutrients, together with mixing of shallow bottom sediments, which are induced by the strong wind episodes. In the warm season, the influence of the river water from the Northern Adriatic is observed down to the middle Adriatic sill, while the Southern Adriatic may be under the influence of Albanian rivers. Therefore, thermohaline properties, hydrological data and pressure gradients were related to the satellite pigment concentrations from different Adriatic sites, in order to have better insight about the possible connections. The pigment variability in the three sites, Northern, Middle, and Southern Adriatic is, in a different way, forced by meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic conditions, caused by dissimilar underlying physical mechanism of these areas due to different depth, location and exposure to various influences. The phytoplankton dynamics in the Northern Adriatic, as reflected in chlorophyll a, is especially influenced by the river runoff.

Pigment spatial and temporal variability was studied from long-term CZCS observations. The three Adriatic sites, Northern, Middle, and Southern Adriatic are differently influenced by meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic parameters, pointing out to some differences in the underlying mechanism of the pigment variability in these areas. The phytoplankton dynamics in the Northern Adriatic, as reflected in chlorophyll a, is especially influenced by the river runoff, which intensively enrich nutrient supply and mixing of shallow bottom sediments, which are induced by the strong wind. The differences between seasonal course of in-situ chlorophyll and remotely sensed pigment concentrations (from CZCS satellite data) from the Adriatic are especially large in winter. However, in-situ chlorophyll changes are in accordance with the course of transparency for the Northern and Middle Adriatic. Meteo-oceanographic and hydrological data are compared to the satellite pigment concentrations from different Adriatic sites, in order to give some information about possible causes of these differences.