Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a large saline water body between Europe, North Africa and Asia,
connected to the Atlantic Ocean in the west through the Strait of Gibraltar; the Black Sea in the
northeast through the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara and Bosporus; and to the Red Sea in the
southeast through the man-made Suez Canal. In ancient times the Mediterranean Basin was
home to some of the earliest human civilisations developing sophisticated art and advanced
engineering technology.

Marine species in the Mediterranean have been under intense pressure for the past millennium,
due to overfishing and intense development leading to water pollution and coastal habitat
reduction.  Water quality degradation is on-going with chief sources being surface runoff of
nitrates and phosphates, and discharge of inadequately treated sewage from coastal communities
fringing on the Mediterranean.

Hydrology

The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of 2,700,000 km 2 (1,042,000 miles2) or about one per cent
of the Earth surface. It extends approximately 3860 km (2400 miles) west-east from the Strait of
Gibraltar  to the coast of the Middle East. The north-south dimension of the Mediterranean Sea at
its widest is 1600 km (990 miles), while the average width is half of that distance.

The Mediterranean contains two major basins, eastern and western, separated by the Sicily
Channel, which have horizontal communication to a depth of 430 m (1400 ft), known as the sill
depth, and the 80 m (260 ft) sill depth Strait of Messina. The major sub-basins include a number
of regional seas.

 The Eastern Basin, 4000 to 5000 m (13,000 - 16,400 ft) in depth, includes the Aegean
Sea (which itself includes the Myrtoan Sea, Sea of Crete and Thracian Sea), Ionian Sea
and Leventine Sea.

 The Western Basin,  2500 to 3500 m (8200 - 11,500 ft) in depth, includes the Alboran
Sea, Balearic Sea, Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

In addition, the Adriatic Sea is separated from the Eastern Basin by the Strait of Otranto (800
m/2600 ft sill depth). Generally shallower in the northern areas, the Mediterranean has an overall
average depth of about 1500 m (4921 ft). The deepest point in the Mediterranean is 5267 m
(17,280 ft) at a point known as the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea.

The Mediterranean receives the inflow from relatively few rivers because of a number of
mountain ranges that lay close to the sea, the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain, the
Pyrenees, Alps, Dinaric Alps, Taurus Mountains, Lebanon Mountains, the Aurès, Tell Atlas
Mountains and Rif Mountains. These mountains, combined with the fact that North Africa is
dominated by the Sahara Desert results in only a few major rivers flowing into the Mediterranean
Sea include: the Ebro (Spain), Rhone (France), Po River, (Italy), and Nile River (Egypt).
Due to the small number of major rivers feeding the Mediterranean, evaporation within the
Mediterranean basin water from the sea is greater than the inflow of water from rivers and rain
producing a water deficit in the sea (approximately 2500 cubic km per annum) that requires
additional inflows to maintain the sea level. This water deficit also makes the water of the
Mediterranean more saline than that of the connected Atlantic Ocean: 39 practical salinity units
(psu) compared to 36 psu in the Atlantic. The Mediterranean's high salinity and water deficit
leads to thermohaline circulation with the Atlantic. A swift current brings water from the
Atlantic into the regional Alboran Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar at and near the surface. As
the water flows east it becomes saltier and mixes with Mediterranean waters. However, the
current remains distinct as is sinks in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea before turning
westward in a kind of "conveyor belt" flow which returns west and exits through the lower part
of the Strait of Gibraltar. The water within this flow (known as the Mediterranean Intermediate
Water), that completes the entire conveyor belt loop resides within the Mediterranean basin for
approximately 80 to 100 years. 

This thermohaline circulation also occurs at the Mediterranean Sea's eastern end with the Black
Sea through the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara and Bosporus.

Water Quality

The Mediterranean Sea has a number of significant water quality issues including discharges of
untreated or inadequately treated sewage, non-point runoff from agricultural uses and
sedimentation from terrestrial land development in the basin. At the basin scale, sewage effluents
released along the southern coasts typically are entrained either parallel to the shoreline or
seaward, before eventually coming back. Effluents from the eastern and northern coasts are
characteristically entrained parallel to the coasts.

Algal blooms and jellyfish population explosions in the Mediterranean are due to and high
nutrient influxes, chiefly from intensive terrestrial agriculture. Algal blooms are enhanced by
nitrate and phosphate influxes from both farming and inadequately treated human wastes. The
Mediterranean eddy currents are such that floatables and non-dissolved pollutant materials tend
to concentrate on the North African coastline. Many beaches in southern Europe as well as North
Africa have high levels of bacteria, chiefly due to the wastewater load of undertreated sewage
and circulation anomalies of the Mediterranean.

Geography

Countries and regions that border the Mediterranean Sea include (from the northwest moving
clockwise): Gibraltar (British territory), Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel,
Gaza Strip, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. This article does not address certain
contentious issues related to the borders and status of some areas within the Mediterranean.

Marine Flora and Fauna

The marine ecosystem represents a significant area of species occurrence and endemism;
however, considerable degradation is present and on-going, due to the influence of the expanding
human population over the last several millennia. Chief threats to the marine ecosystem are
overfishing, coastline land development and water pollution.

Flora

There are more than 1000 species of macro-flora present in the Mediterranean Sea and its arms;
approximately twenty per cent of these are endemic to the Mediterranean, representing a high
level of aquatic plant endemism. The most striking plant community is Neptune Grass,
Posidonia oceanica, meadows system, which has a high biomass density, primary productivity
and level of endemism; these communities are being steadily degraded particularly due to water
pollution in the coastal sea near urban areas such as Barcelona, Athens, Nice, Naples, Toulon
and Marseilles. One large clonal colony has been discovered off the island of Ibiza, measuring
eight kilometres in characteristic dimension, which some researchers feel may be the largest and
oldest clonal community on Earth, at an estimated age of 100,000 years.

Other significant marine flora are Zostera marina, Z. noltii, Calerpa olivieri, Cystoseira
amentacea, C. mediterranea, C. sedoides, C. Spinosa, C. zosteroides, Goniolithon byssoides,
Laminaria rodriguezii, Lithophyllum lichenoides, Ptilophora mediterranea and Schimmelmannia
shousboei.

Fauna

There are significant occurrences of cetaceans, marine turtles and pinnipeds in the Mediterranean
Sea as well as numerous fish species, invertebrates and lower life forms. Threats to cetaceans
include intentional taking, water pollution and bycatch. Nineteen cetacean species are found in
the Mediterranean, including the Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, Sperm whale, Physeter
macrocephalus, Striped dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba, Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus,
Long-finned Pilot whale, Globicephala melas, Bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus, Common
dolphin Delphinus delphis, Cuvier's beaked whale, Ziphius cavirostris. Four of the cetaceans are
occasional visitors: Minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, Killer whale, Orcinus orca, False
killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens, and Rough toothed dolphin, Steno bredanesis.

All of the five species of marine turtles occurring in the Mediterranean are listed as endangered.
Specific locales of the marine turtle habitat are off the coasts of Croatia, Bosnia, Algeria,
Albania, Egypt, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Libya, Morocco and Malta. The
Loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, is an important instance of the marine turtles in the
Mediterranean.  Particularly important sea turtle migration occurs in the Straits of Gibraltar and
the Alboran Sea and connecting waters. The United Nations has expressed specific concern over
bycatch mortality in fisheries governed by Libya, Malta, Morocco and Algeria; furthermore, the
UN has noted particular failures in Syria and Egypt to identify properly the nesting areas and
protect these areas.

The Mediterranean monk seal is restricted to a handful of small and scattered colonies in the
Ionian and Aegean Seas and the southern coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean, as well as
scattered populations on the coasts of the western Sahara and Mauritania, and the Portuguese
Desertas Islands, Madeira. It is thought that just two of these populations are viable, in Greece
and northwest Africa. Mediterranean monk seals are thought to have been extirpated along the
Libyan coast, due to water pollution and lack of protection in that locale. Sea cave breeding areas
for this seal have been identified in Sardina, Greece (Northern Sporades) and Tunisia (Galite).
There are only about 400 Mediterranean monk seals remaining, so that strong protection
measures are urgently needed by the European Union and North African countries.

There are 85 species of chondrichthyan fish in the Mediterranean Sea including several
cartilagenous fishes that are presently protected including the Basking shark, Cetorhinus
maximus; Great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias; and the Mediterranean devil ray, Mobula
mubular. Other species that are endangered, but in need of further protection are: Sand sharks,
Carcharias taurus and Odontaspis ferox, and the Gray skate, Dipturus batis. The Speckled skate,
Raja polystigma, is a species in potential danger of extinction, but there is a defiency of data on
which to base an action plan. The United Nations has expressed concern about alien species of
chnodrichthyan fishes entering the eastern Mediterranean from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal.
There is a pressing need to develop programs to sustainably manage with respect to target as well
as bycathch species the commercially important Porbeagle, Lamna nasus; Dogfish, Squalus
acanthias; Blue shark, Prionace glauca; Catshark, Galeus melastomus; Houndshark,
Galeorhinus galeus; Requem sharks, Carcharhinus falciformis, C. limbatus, C. obscurus and C.
plumbeus. The Bluefin tuna populations have been decimated by overfishing.

There are several hundred bird species found in the Mediterranean Basin, although there are
relatively few true pelagic birds present. There are several robust breeding colonies of the
endangered Cory's Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea. The endangered Levantin Shearwater,
Puffinus yelkouan, the Balearic Shearwater, P. mauretanicus and the endangered European
Storm-petrel, Hydrobates pelagicus can be observed on certain coastal cliff topography at rocky
islands and skerries.

Other avafauna species that are threatened or endangered in this region include: European Shag,
Phalacrocorax aristotelis; Pygmy Cormorant, P. pygmeus; White Pelican, Pelacanus
onocrotalus; Dalmatian Pelican, P.crispus; Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber; Osprey,
Pandion haliaetus; Eleonora's Falcon, Falco eleonorae; Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius
tenuirostris; Audouin's Gull, Larus audouinii; Lesser Crested Tern, Sterna bengalensis;
Sandwich Tern, S. sandvicensis; Little Tern, S. albifrons.

Geological History

The most notable geological evolution of the basin involves the Mediterranean Sea beginning a
cycle of almost complete desiccation in the latter part of the Messinian Age of the Miocene
epoch, enduring from approximately 5.96 to 5.33 million years before present. This basin
isolation from the Atlantic terminated with the Zanclean flood, when the sea again invaded the
Basin; that flooding ended the low-sunken hypersaline pools that occupied the Mediterranean
Basin during the cut-off of the Atlantic Ocean connection.

Ancient History
Several of the earliest advanced human civilizations began near the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
In Mesopotamia beginning with Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, there was evidence of symbol
writing and advanced art. Slightly later, the Nile River valley of ancient Egypt was the center of
highly advanced architecture, art and hieroglyphic writing also in the 4th millennium BC; other
notable Mediterranean cultures arose on Crete and other Greek Islands, where significant
advances in writing, art and architecture occurred in the 3rd through 1st centuries BC. These
early technologies dispersed rapidly throughout the Levant, most notably involving Lebanon,
and Israel, with certain advanced metal technologies proceeding as far as the Iberian Peninsula,
but it was more difficult to spread agricultural technologies and crops, such as flax, lentil, peas,
barley, and cotton throughout the Mediterranean Basin. In short, the emergence of advanced art
and technology in the Mediterranean rivalled similar early awakenings of similar advancements
in such distant places as China and in the Orkney Islands.

In ancient Macedonia, technology developed in concert with cavalry warfare. Alexander the
Great led the Macedonians to defeat the Persian threat from the east and vanquished the Persian
empire, resulting in the dispersion of Greek dominance and technology throughout the north and
east of the Mediterranean Basin, including authority as far north and east as ports on the Black
Sea such as Histria. Power centres moved to the west with the Phoenician colony of Carthage
achieving primacy in North Africa with territories extending to Volubilis and Lixis in present
day Morocco. The Roman Empire expanded to control the whole Mediterranean region. Rome
vanquished Carthage in the Punic Wars. Rome extended its hegemony eastward conquering
Greece and much of the Middle East. Judea was a portion of the Roman Empire, where
Christianity was founded, ultimately becoming the official faith of the Empire. Rome collapsed
after 476 AD, as a result of heavy taxation and extensive immigration from poorer countries. The
Byzantine Empire emerged to govern the eastern portion of the prior Roman Empire.  The
western elements of Gaul, Iberia and the Maghreb were overrun by nomadic peoples from the
Eurasian steppe, leading to piecemeal fiefdoms in the east and among the Germanic peoples to
the north.

References
 Vittorio Barale and Martin Gade. 2008. Remote Sensing of the European Seas. Springer.
ISBN: 1402067712
 B.S.Galil and A.Zenetos. 2002. A sea change: exotics in the eastern Mediterranean Sea,
in: E.Leppäkoski et al. Invasive aquatic species of Europe: distribution, impacts and
management.
 C.Michael Hogan. 2007. Knossos fieldnotes. Modern Antiquarian. ed.J.Cope
 F.Gautier, G.Clauzon, J.P.Suc, J.Cravatte, D.Violanti. 1994. Age and duration of the
Messinian salinity crisis. C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris
 C.Millot. 2003. Circulation in the Mediterranean Sea and consequences on the water
quality. The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System
 United Nations Environment Programme. Action Plan for Conservation of Marine
Vegetation in the Mediterranean. Simpact Publishers, Tunisia

Citation
Hogan, C. (2013). Mediterranean Sea. Retrieved from
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/154548