The Bosphorus-Marmara-Dardanelles system connects the Black Sea with the EMB. The exchange through the Strait

of Messina is much smaller than that through the Sicily Channel and is therefore neglected. The present study will treat the Black Sea solely as river runoff with a salinity 18 PSU lower than that of the Mediterranean. The EMB will be regarded as a single natural basin with in- and outflows, and processes such as air-sea interaction, land-sea interaction (i.e. river runoff), diapycnal mixing, overturning circulation (i.e. Atlantic water inflows, intermediate and deep water formation), exchange through the Sicily Channel and brackish water check details outflow from the Black Sea will be emphasized. The River Nile and Black Sea play important roles in changing the freshwater content of the EMB. The model will be driven by available meteorological and hydrological data and validated using available oceanographic observations. Based on the calculations, conclusions will be drawn

regarding the water (salinity) and heat (temperature) balances. The thermohaline water structure in the Eastern Mediterranean is an important climatic issue, as its changes may affect marine systems through changes in deep water formation, current systems and sea level variations. Freshwater input to the EMB mixes with sea surface water and surface water flows from the Western Mediterranean Basin through the

Sicily Channel. The outflow of water over the Sicily Channel sill (Figure 2b, page 205) is responsible Metformin for water loss from the EMB. The negative value of net precipitation Thalidomide (precipitation P minus evaporation E) influences the salinity balance. In the winter, because of evaporation and heat loss, the Levantine surface water may become dense enough to form Levantine intermediate-depth water (200–500 m) or Levantine deep water. However, deep water forms only occasionally. Roether & Schlitzer (1991) demonstrated that the average deep water formation rate in the EMB is approximately 0.3 × 106 m3 s− 1. Malanotte-Rizzoli et al. (1999) found that deep water formation takes place in the Adriatic, Aegean and Levantine sub-basins. Zervakis et al. (2000) demonstrated that the enhanced negative water balance of the Eastern Mediterranean leads to a new source of deep water formation, especially in the Aegean Sea. Béranger et al. (2002) investigated the mean inflow to the EMB through the Sicily Channel using numerical modelling. They estimated that the mean inflow through the Channel was approximately 1.05 ± 0.35 × 106 m3 s− 1 over a 13-year period. Stansfield et al. (2002) estimated the surface flow to the Eastern basin using observations from conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) data. They found a surface flow of Atlantic water (AW) origin flowing through the Sicily Channel above a depth of 150 m.