Short-term variability of offshore physical features in the Levantine Basin: The integration of in-situ and remote sensing observations

摘要

The climatology of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin has been altered significantly in the past decades. The shift of deep and intermediate water formation sites for the Eastern Mediterranean has imposed questions regarding the stability of the system, the cause of the alteration, the plausible change in surface circulation and long term impacts on the food web. The assessment of these questions is hindered by the lack of long term data for the area and especially for the Levantine Basin regarding key elements including temperature, salinity and plankton composition. The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) is a biological sampler that operates around the world for the past 84 years and has the potential to fill the gap in physical and biological long term data for the Eastern Mediterranean. Recent monthly CPR samplings along a transect in the southern Levantine reveal north-to-south increasing primary production and temperature gradient with intermediate interruptions from an offshore high productivity system. The continuation of the CPR survey is envisioned within a regional collaboration.