DATE2016-05-30 15:14:34
IDABSTRACT20160530151434-0994
CONTACTmmavro@oc.phys.uoa.gr
PRESENTATIONPOSTER
INVITED0
IDSESSION1
TITLEINTERANNUAL VARIABILITY OF THE OXYGEN MINIMUM ZONE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
AUTHORSApostolia Maria Mavropoulou (1), Athanasios Nenes (1,2,3,4), Sarantis Sofianos (1)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. Ocean Physics And Modelling Group, Department Of Physics, University Of Athens (Greece)
  2. School Of Earth And Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute Of Technology, Atlanta (United States)
  3. Institute Of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation For Research And Technology, Patras (Greece)
  4. Institute For Environmental Research And Sustainable Development, National Observatory Of Athens, Palea Penteli (Greece)
ABSTRACTDissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is an important oceanic parameter for the functioning of the marine ecosystem. Physical and biogeochemical processes regulate its distribution and variability. Climate models predict decrease in oceanic DO and oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are going to expand in the following decades as a consequence of climate change.In this study the temporal and spatial variability of the dissolved oxygen was determined in detail using a quality-controlled historical database. We focus on the Mediterranean Sea, which, despite the fact that is characterized as an oligotrophic area, owing to the lack of significant upwelling of the nutrient rich deep-water mass, it receives a large amount of bioactive trace metals from the atmosphere, which influence the primary productivity and hence, the variability of oxygen consumption. In order to investigate the time evolution of the OMZ, we use a DO dataset for the Mediterranean Sea that covers the period 1960-2014, derived from the National Oceanographic Data Center. To reduce the influence of spatial variability we also divided the study area into sub-basins. Linear trends were computed using annual average of dissolved oxygen profiles in different depth layers which show an oxygen decrease for the last 54 years. Vertical profiles of annual mean of dissolved oxygen concentration also reveal that the OMZ expands vertically with time, especially in the recent period 1990-2014.The attribution of the observed variability involves complex physical and biogeochemical processes and requires advanced analysis as well as observational and modeling techniques.
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