Determinants of temperature and salinity in the Levantine Sea using in-situ data

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2019-8
Serimözü, Cem
The Levantine Sea, part of the Eastern Mediterranean where international interests collide and exposed to rising anthropogenic pressure, is our focus in this study. Additionally, four of its sub-regions: Cilician and Levantine Basins, Coastal Nile Delta and Rhodes Gyre are chosen. On account of the relative scarcity of scientific studies of these regions, we aimed to contribute to the investigation of Sea Water Temperature and Salinity, two critical oceanographic parameters in the context of climate change. To this end, we selected a dataset demonstrating sparse observations and erratic distribution for this pioneering in-depth analysis. We begin by presenting a comprehensive spatial definition and introduce conventional data collection tools and sharing infrastructures. An in-situ aggregated dataset, “Mediterranean Sea - Temperature and Salinity Historical Data Collection SeaDataCloud V1” covering the area between 1960 and 2017 is retrieved to conduct a descriptive analysis for multiple depth layers and seasons. Climatological and isothermal maps are used to sketch the boundaries of the sub-regions. Meanwhile, cluster analysis is employed to define the limits and further identify the existence of distinct regional properties. Moreover, we replace missing observations with approximations using chained equations to increase the robustness of our analysis, and the resulting datasets are analysed on a yearly and monthly basis to determine variability. Furthermore, empirical and theoretical cumulative distribution functions of the data supported by classical statistical methods are used to establish optimal theoretic models. Finally, regression analyses are performed to measure the significance of spatiotemporal parameters using predicted values.

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Citation Formats
C. Serimözü, “Determinants of temperature and salinity in the Levantine Sea using in-situ data,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2019.