Changes in Atlantic Water characteristics in the south-eastern Mediterranean Sea as a result of natural and anthropogenic activities

The paper investigates the changes in the characteristics of Atlantic Water (AW) flowing eastwards along the Egyptian coast in the south-eastern Mediterranean during the period 1959-2008. Vertically, only one water mass could be observed in winter in the upper 200 m layer, whereas in summer, there were three distinct water masses. The subsurface water mass, of Atlantic origin, occupying the 50-150 m layer and characterized by low salinities from < 38.60 to 38.80 PSU, moves throughout the study area from west to east and spreads over a range of density between 27.5 and 28.5 sigma(t). Temperature and salinity have indicated increasing trends for both temperature and salinity during the last 25 years (1983-2008), reaching 0.85 degrees C decade(-1) and 0.073 PSU dec(-1), respectively, for the Mediterranean surface waters. For the Atlantic water, the trends were 0.28 degrees C dec(-1) for temperature and 0.014 PSU dec(-1) for sailnity.