Assessment of salt supply in different regions of the Eastern Mediterranean in response to changes in wind-driven circulation

Since the beginning of 90’s a large climatic event, widely known as Eastern Mediterranean Transient, established in the Cretan Sea (Southern Aegean) an additional source of dense waters [Roether et al., 1996]. This event has been largely attributed to an increase of salinity in the Aegean Sea since the mid 80’s [Theocharis et al, 1999]. The basic belief was that important meteorological anomalies acting in the Eastern Mediterranean changed the circulation patterns of the main water masses, which drive the salt distribution in the different sub-basins both at surface and intermediate layers [Malanotte-Rizzoli et al., 1999]. Concurrently, altered fresh water budgets and exceptional cold winters over the Aegean Sea might have played favourable conditions to move the predominant source of dense waters of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Adriatic into the Aegean Sea during the early 90’s [Josey, 2003].