Malta taking part in CIESM’s ‘Tropical Signals’ programme
The Physical Oceanography Unit (PO-Unit) within the IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta is participating, along with the Department of Biology, in the ‘Tropical Signals’ programme coordinated by the Mediterranean Science Commission...
The Physical Oceanography Unit (PO-Unit) within the IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta is participating, along with the Department of Biology, in the ‘Tropical Signals’ programme coordinated by the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM: International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea).
‘Tropical Signals’ aims to track and evaluate the effects of tropicalisation of the Mediterranean Sea using reliable and representative biological macrodescriptors of climate warming.
An international network of 21 research teams from 15 countries has been set up.
The PO-Unit is responsible for the local physical oceanography component within this ambitious research programme. Unit members taking part in the project include Alan Deidun, Adam Gauci and Aldo Drago.
Last January, the unit deployed a set of temperature data loggers donated by CIESM at Ċirkewwa. The loggers were set at five-metre intervals, from a depth of five metres to 40 metres.
A second set of temperature data loggers was deployed at the same depths at Dwejra in Gozo.
These data loggers record sea temperature every hour and are retrieved every six months to download the collected data.
The data is yielding useful information about diurnal and seasonal changes in sea temp-erature and information about the timing of thermocline ormation.
The long-term data being collected will be used to analyse possible correlations with changes observed in the distribution and abundance of a selected algal, invertebrate and fish species.
Local monitoring of this biological component of the ‘Tropical Signals’ programme is being undertaken by the Department of Biology under the leadership of Patrick Schembri.