CIESM Hydrochanges Program
Continuous, long-term measurements of temperature & salinity of Mediterranean deep waters in key areas – a priority in the current context of global warming.

Coordination: Katrin Schroeder
CNR – ISMAR, Institute for Marine Science, Venice, Italy
Engineering support: Gilles Rougier
Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), CNRS Aix-Marseille University, France
CIESM HQ support: Michèle Barbier

Latest developments of the program.

Brief description:

In situ measurements of temperature and salinity, collected with adequate spatial and temporal resolutions, and with particular attention to sensitive, often long-neglected Mediterranean areas (straits and channels, zones of dense water formation, deeper parts of the basins), constitute a priority, particularly in the current context of global climate change. To this effect, our CIESM program is deploying/ monitoring an array of stations that could be viewed in time as the marine counterpart of meteorological stations. A station is composed of a short (~10 m high) subsurface mooring equipped with an autonomous CTD (1 to 2-hr sampling interval) and usually a current-meter. Moorings are set in place close to the seabed at depths ranging from 300 to 2,500 m, for periods of 1-2 years before recovery (for maintenance and calibration) and re-deployment, by scientific teams and/ or hydrographic services of participating countries. More than twenty stations are already in operation, plus those susceptible to be deployed soon, are indicated on the map below.

Hydrochanges Program Network



Sites in operation: yellow circles; Sites temporarily interrupted: white circles  Enlarge the map

Figure 1. The numbers refer to details of each site, which are listed in Table 1 (see below): involved institutes, position, time frame, instruments and measured parameters for each depth.

Table 1. Contributing institutes and details of the monitored site – See Tab.1.

Recent papers stemming from the CIESM Hydrochanges Program:

  • Schroeder K., Millot C., Bengara L., Ben Ismail S., Bensi M., Borghini M., Budillon G., Cardin V., Coppola L., Curtil C., Drago A., El Moumni B., Font J., Fuda J.L., García-Lafuente J., Gasparini G.P., Kontoyiannis H., Lefevre D., Puig P., Raimbault P., Rougier G., Salat J., Sammari C., Sánchez Garrido J.C., Sanchez-Roman A., Sparnocchia S., Tamburini C., Taupier-Letage I., Theocharis A., Vargas-Yáñez M. and Vetrano A., 2013. Long-term monitoring programme of the hydrological variability in the Mediterranean Sea: a first overview of the HYDROCHANGES network. Ocean Sci. , 9: 301-324, doi:10.5194/os-9-301-2013.
    See http://www.ocean-sci.net/9/301/2013/os-9-301-2013.html
  • Millot C. and Garcia-Lafuente J., 2011. About the seasonal and fortnightly variabilities of the Mediterranean outflow. Ocean Sci., 7: 421-428, doi:10.5194/os-7-421-2011. Download
  • Schroeder K., Cardin V., Font J., Fuda J., Garcia Lafuente J., Puig P., Taupier-Letage I. and others, 2010. HYDROCHANGES network: latest observations and links between time series. Rapp. Comm. Int. Mer Medit., 39: 180. Venice, May 2010. Download
  • Millot C., 2009. Another description of the Mediterranean Sea outflow. Progr. Oceanogr., 82: 101-124. Download
  • Millot C., 2007. Interannual salinification of the Mediterranean inflow. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L21609, doi:10.1029/2007GL031179. Download
  • García Lafuente J., Sánchez Román A., Díaz del Río G., Sannino G. and Sánchez Garrido J.C., 2007. Recent observations of seasonal variability of the Mediterranean outflow in the Strait of Gibraltar. J. Geophys. Res.12, C10005, doi:10.1029/
    2006JC003992. Download
  • Font J., Puig P., Salat J., Palanques A. and Emelianov M., 2007. Sequence of hydrographic changes in NW Mediterranean deep water due to the exceptional winter of 2005. Sci. Mar., 71(2): 339-346.
    See http://www.icm.csic.es/scimar/index.php/secId/6/IdNum/2/
  • Fuda J.-L., Font J., García Lafuente J., Gasparini G.P., Millot C. and Others. 2007.  Hydrochanges: first results and perspectives. Rapp. Comm. Int. Médit. 38, p. 27. Download
  • Millot C., Fuda J.-L., Candela J., Tber Y., and Rougier G., 2007. Hydrochanges at Gibraltar. Rapp. Comm. Int. Médit. 38, p. 172. Download
  • Millot C., Fuda J.-L., Candela J. and Tber Y., 2006. Large warming and salinification of the Mediterranean outflow due to changes in its composition, Deep Sea Research I, pp. 656-666 . Download

List of Hydrochanges Partners:

Sana Ben Ismail    (INSTM-Tunis, Tunisia)
Lahoucine Bengara   (Univ. Abdelmalek Essaâdi, Tanger, Maroc)
Manuel Bensi   (OGS, Trieste, Italy)
Mireno Borghini   (CNR-ISMAR, Italy)
Giorgio Budillon   (DiSAm, Naples, Italy)
Vanessa Cardin   (OGS-Trieste, Italy)
Laurent Coppola   (Observatoire Oceanologique, Villefranche-sur-mer, France)
Christian Curtil   (Univ. Med., France)
Aldo Drago    (Malte)
Bouchta El Moumni   (Univ. Abdelmalek Essaâdi Tanger, Maroc)
Jordi Font    (ICM-CSIC, Spain)
Jesus Garcia Lafuente   (Univ. Malaga, UMA, Spain)
Gianpietro Gasparini    (ISMAR, Italy)
Harilaos Kontoyiannis   (HCMR, Greece)
Leonardo Langone   (ISMAR, Italy)
Dominique Levefre   (ANTARES Group, France)
Claude Millot   (CNRS, France)
Stefano Miserocchi   (ISMAR, Italy)
Pere Puig   (ICM-CSIC, Spain)
Jordi Salat   (ICM-CSIC, Spain)
Cherif Sammari    (INSTM-Tunis, Tunisia)
Antonio J. Sánchez Román   (Univ. Malaga, UMA, Spain)
Stefania Sparnocchia   (CNR, Italy)
Christian Tamburini    (ANTARES Group, France)
Isabelle Taupier-Letage   (MIO, CNRS Aix-Marseille University, France)
Alex Theocharis   (HCMR, Greece)
Manuel Vargas    (IEO, Spain)
Anna Vetrano    (ISMAR, Italy)