Modeling of the Total Alkalinity and the Total Inorganic Carbon in the Mediterranean Sea

International audienceMeasurements of the CO 2 system parameters in the Mediterranean Sea are relatively scarce and not representative for all its sub-basins. High quality data collected on May 2013 during the 2013 MedSeA cruise covering the whole basin were used to provide for the first time linear relationships estimating the total alkalinity (A T) and the total dissolved inorganic carbon (C T) from salinity in each Mediterranean basin and sub-basin at different depth layers. These correlations show that a substantial quantity of alkalinity is added to the seawater during its residence time in the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the biological processes, the air-sea exchange and the high remineralization rate are responsible of the high C T concentrations in this sea. Moreover, these fits could be used to estimate the A T and C T from salinity where there are not available measurements of the carbonate system parameters