Physical forcing and physical/biochemical variability of the Mediterranean Sea: a review of unresolved issues and directions for future research

[摘要] This paper is the outcome of aworkshop held in Rome in November 2011 on the occasion of the 25thanniversary of the POEM (Physical Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean)program. In the workshop discussions, a number of unresolved issues wereidentified for the physical and biogeochemical properties of theMediterranean Sea as a whole, i.e., comprising the Western and Easternsub-basins. Over the successive two years, the related ideas were discussedamong the group of scientists who participated in the workshop and who havecontributed to the writing of this paper.

Three major topics were identified, each of them being the object of asection divided into a number of different sub-sections, each addressing aspecific physical, chemical or biological issue:

1.Assessment of basin-wide physical/biochemical properties, of their variability andinteractions.

2. Relative importance of external forcing functions (wind stress, heat/moisture fluxes, forcing through straits) vs. internalvariability.

3.Shelf/deep sea interactions and exchanges of physical/biogeochemical properties and how they affect the sub-basin circulation and propertydistribution.

Furthermore, a number of unresolved scientific/methodological issues werealso identified and are reported in each sub-section after a short discussionof the present knowledge. They represent the collegial consensus of thescientists contributing to the paper. Naturally, the unresolved issuespresented hereconstitute thechoice of the authors and therefore they may not be exhaustive and/orcomplete. The overall goal is to stimulate a broader interdisciplinarydiscussion among the scientists of the Mediterranean oceanographic community,leading to enhanced collaborative efforts and exciting future discoveries.

[学科分类] 海洋学与技术