Dense water characteristics in the northern Adriatic in the 1967–2000 interval with respect to surface fluxes and Po river discharge rates

Winter thermohaline properties of the northern Adriatic are analysed here with the aim of getting a better insight into dense water formation on the shelf. The hydrographic parameters collected in February in the 1967–2000 interval at two stations, the first located close to the eastern shore (station 1), and the second positioned near the Po river mouth (station 2), are compared. Two types of winter hydrographic conditions are distinguished: type A when bottom salinity and density are higher at station 1 than at station 2 and type B when these parameters are higher at station 2 than at station 1. Type A is more likely to occur in warmer and type B in colder winters. Both A and B distribution types can occur in periods when the Adriatic is under the influence of very saline waters of Mediterranean origin. Interannual changes in density are, at both stations, more dependant on haline than on thermal variations. At both stations temperature was somewhat higher in the early seventies than during the eighties and nineties, while salinity and density were lower in the early seventies and early nineties than in other years of the analysed period. By comparing the 1967–2000 changes in hydrographic conditions in February to monthly values of northern Adriatic surface fluxes and Po river discharge rates, it is shown that winter thermohaline characteristics in the region depend on processes which occur much earlier, i.e. during the previous autumn and late in spring of the preceding year, and even during the previous winter, 12 months before.