The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins
Background: Regime shifts are abrupt changes encompassing a multitude of physical properties and ecosystem variables, which lead to new regime conditions. Recent investigations focus on the changes in ecosystem diversity and functioning associated to such shifts. Of particular interest, because of t...
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ftoceanrep:oai:oceanrep.geomar.de:8665 2023-05-15T17:36:00+02:00 The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins Conversi, A. Fonda Umani, S. Peluso, T. Molinero, Juan Carlos Santojanni, A. Edwards, M. Humphries, S. 2010 text https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/1/PLoSONE_Conversi-etal2010.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 en eng Public Library of Science https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/1/PLoSONE_Conversi-etal2010.pdf Conversi, A., Fonda Umani, S., Peluso, T., Molinero, J. C., Santojanni, A., Edwards, M. and Humphries, S. (2010) The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins. Open Access PLoS ONE, 5 (5). e10633. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633>. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 cc_by_3.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Article PeerReviewed 2010 ftoceanrep https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 2023-04-07T14:57:00Z Background: Regime shifts are abrupt changes encompassing a multitude of physical properties and ecosystem variables, which lead to new regime conditions. Recent investigations focus on the changes in ecosystem diversity and functioning associated to such shifts. Of particular interest, because of the implication on climate drivers, are shifts that occur synchronously in separated basins. Principal Findings: In this work we analyze and review long-term records of Mediterranean ecological and hydro-climate variables and find that all point to a synchronous change in the late 1980s. A quantitative synthesis of the literature (including observed oceanic data, models and satellite analyses) shows that these years mark a major change in Mediterranean hydrographic properties, surface circulation, and deep water convection (the Eastern Mediterranean Transient). We provide novel analyses that link local, regional and basin scale hydrological properties with two major indicators of large scale climate, the North Atlantic Oscillation index and the Northern Hemisphere Temperature index, suggesting that the Mediterranean shift is part of a large scale change in the Northern Hemisphere. We provide a simplified scheme of the different effects of climate vs. temperature on pelagic ecosystems. Conclusions: Our results show that the Mediterranean Sea underwent a major change at the end of the 1980s that encompassed atmospheric, hydrological, and ecological systems, for which it can be considered a regime shift. We further provide evidence that the local hydrography is linked to the larger scale, northern hemisphere climate. These results suggest that the shifts that affected the North, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean (this work) Seas at the end of the 1980s, that have been so far only partly associated, are likely linked as part a northern hemisphere change. These findings bear wide implications for the development of climate change scenarios, as synchronous shifts may provide the key for distinguishing local (i.e., basin) ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) PLoS ONE 5 5 e10633 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) |
op_collection_id |
ftoceanrep |
language |
English |
description |
Background: Regime shifts are abrupt changes encompassing a multitude of physical properties and ecosystem variables, which lead to new regime conditions. Recent investigations focus on the changes in ecosystem diversity and functioning associated to such shifts. Of particular interest, because of the implication on climate drivers, are shifts that occur synchronously in separated basins. Principal Findings: In this work we analyze and review long-term records of Mediterranean ecological and hydro-climate variables and find that all point to a synchronous change in the late 1980s. A quantitative synthesis of the literature (including observed oceanic data, models and satellite analyses) shows that these years mark a major change in Mediterranean hydrographic properties, surface circulation, and deep water convection (the Eastern Mediterranean Transient). We provide novel analyses that link local, regional and basin scale hydrological properties with two major indicators of large scale climate, the North Atlantic Oscillation index and the Northern Hemisphere Temperature index, suggesting that the Mediterranean shift is part of a large scale change in the Northern Hemisphere. We provide a simplified scheme of the different effects of climate vs. temperature on pelagic ecosystems. Conclusions: Our results show that the Mediterranean Sea underwent a major change at the end of the 1980s that encompassed atmospheric, hydrological, and ecological systems, for which it can be considered a regime shift. We further provide evidence that the local hydrography is linked to the larger scale, northern hemisphere climate. These results suggest that the shifts that affected the North, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean (this work) Seas at the end of the 1980s, that have been so far only partly associated, are likely linked as part a northern hemisphere change. These findings bear wide implications for the development of climate change scenarios, as synchronous shifts may provide the key for distinguishing local (i.e., basin) ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Conversi, A. Fonda Umani, S. Peluso, T. Molinero, Juan Carlos Santojanni, A. Edwards, M. Humphries, S. |
spellingShingle |
Conversi, A. Fonda Umani, S. Peluso, T. Molinero, Juan Carlos Santojanni, A. Edwards, M. Humphries, S. The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
author_facet |
Conversi, A. Fonda Umani, S. Peluso, T. Molinero, Juan Carlos Santojanni, A. Edwards, M. Humphries, S. |
author_sort |
Conversi, A. |
title |
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
title_short |
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
title_full |
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
title_fullStr |
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins |
title_sort |
mediterranean sea regime shift at the end of the 1980s, and intriguing parallelisms with other european basins |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/1/PLoSONE_Conversi-etal2010.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_relation |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/8665/1/PLoSONE_Conversi-etal2010.pdf Conversi, A., Fonda Umani, S., Peluso, T., Molinero, J. C., Santojanni, A., Edwards, M. and Humphries, S. (2010) The Mediterranean Sea Regime Shift at the End of the 1980s, and Intriguing Parallelisms with Other European Basins. Open Access PLoS ONE, 5 (5). e10633. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633>. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 |
op_rights |
cc_by_3.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010633 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e10633 |
_version_ |
1766135338569302016 |