MCCIP ARC SCIENCE REVIEW 2010-11 SALINITY 1 MCCIP ARC Science Review 2010-11

• Main Authors: N. Penny Holliday, Sarah L. Hughes, Stephen Dye, Mark Inall, Jane Read, Theresa Shammon, Toby Sherwin, Tim Smyth, Holliday N. P
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dover; Labrador Sea; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.658.3370; http://www.mccip.org.uk/media/6816/mccip201011_salinity.pdf

The salinity of the upper ocean (0-800 m) to the west and north of the UK (Region 8) has been generally increasing since a fresh period in the 1970s. A minimum occurred in the mid 1990s, and present day conditions are saline. The decadal-scale pattern of change around the UK reflects the mean conditions of the North Atlantic. West of the UK the water of the deep ocean (>1000 m) comes from the Labrador Sea and has freshened since 1975. North of the UK, the deep water (800 m) flows from the Nordic Seas; they have freshened since 1950 but have been stable for the last decade. In the northern North Sea (Region 1) the salinity is heavily influenced by inflowing North Atlantic water and has become more saline since the 1970s, though the trend is not as clear. The salinity of the southern North Sea (Region 2) is dominated by river run-off balanced with flow through the Dover Strait and there is no clear trend since the 1970s. The western English Channel (Region 4) is influenced by North Atlantic Water, tidal currents and local weather conditions. There is no discernible long-term trend in over a century of observations, and recent years have been higher than average in salinity. Since the mid-1960s the salinity of the Irish Sea (Region 5) shows no significant long-term