Recent changes in water mass characteristics of the Aegean Sea have considerably influenced the Eastern Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. A combination of salinity increase and temperature drop in the Aegean Sea has caused massive dense water formation and a strong outflow towards the deep and bottom parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. This climatic shift is a combined effect of extreme meteorological events superimposed on large-scale trends. Aegean Sea has become the new type of the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water. Levantine Intermediate Water is blocked in its traditional westbound route. Besides the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea, some anomalies have been observed between the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent seas. In the recent years, oceanographic research in the Mediterranean and the adjacent seas has been made both by the national activities and international cooperative projects. In spite of the various exchanges and interactions between Mediterranean Sea and adjacent seas, the level of exchange of scientific information and cooperation between the scientific communities of Mediterranean countries has been limited. INOC will organize this workshop and TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) will support it.

Contacts: Erdem SAYIN erdem.sayin@deu.edu.tr