Abstract
The Mediterranean basin has been classified as a hot-spot for climate change. The Mediterranean Sea plays a fundamental regulatory role in the regional climate. We have analyzed the largest available and complete time series (1982–2019) of blended sea surface temperature (SST) data to study its seasonal cycle and look for a possible warming trend in the basin. From the analysis of the Mediterranean mean SST time series, a new temporal seasonal division is derived that differs from the one used in atmospheric climatology. Then, the SST time series were decomposed into their seasonal and trend components, and a consistent warming trend of 0.035 °C/year was obtained. The nature of this trend has been investigated, indicating a higher warming trend for both maximum and high/summer SST values than for the winter/colder ones. This reinforces the consistency of the SST increase since it is not only based on the presence of extreme values, but on a homogeneous basin global increase of high SST records as well. Although warming is found throughout the Mediterranean basin, the spatial variability found leads to the division of the basin into three distinct subareas regarding warming.
Highlights
The Mediterranean region’s geomorphology is mainly made up of a semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by relatively high mountain ranges in the western basin and mostly open to the southeast of the basin
If we look at the deseasonalized mean sea surface temperature (SST) component for the three beforementioned sub-basins (WMED, CMED and EMED), we can see warming trends of different the 1982–2016 period, so no significant change has been found in the SST trend with the addition of the last three years
The Mediterranean region has been defined as a hot-spot for climate change, and it is exposed to important impacts that will intensify environmental risks
Summary
The Mediterranean region’s geomorphology is mainly made up of a semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by relatively high mountain ranges in the western basin and mostly open to the southeast of the basin. The Mediterranean Sea presents a global negative water balance due to an excess of evaporation over precipitation and river runoff, barely compensated by the inflow of Atlantic water through the Gibraltar Strait [1]. This configuration favors a unique meteorological regime, in which the Mediterranean Sea plays a fundamental role as one of the main drivers of the climate system. This human–environment interaction has already had an impact on the Mediterranean environment [1,5,6], including SST, in a feedback mechanism, as changes in weather and climate will affect any human activity
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