The CO2 system in the Mediterranean Sea: a basin wide perspective

During April-May 2011 two cruises (M84/3, RV Meteor, Istambul-Vigo, and EF11, RV Urania, Bari -La Spezia) overdetermined the CO system in the MedSea for the first time. The internal consistency analysis for pH, alkalinity and total inorganic carbon confirmed the use of CO2 constants from Mehrbach et al. (1973) [1] and others [2] and [3]. This analysis reveals some insights about the peculiar physico-chemical characteristics of MedSea waters. Vertical distributions of these properties will be presented and discussed along with property-property plots to characterize the different water masses in the MedSea subbasins. The sensitivity of MedSea waters to CO2 increase will be discussed using the vertical distribution of buffer factors and the saturation state for calcite and aragonite