Lehmann, Andreas, Getzlaff, Klaus , Hinrichsen, Hans-Harald and Köster, F. (2010) CAVIAR: Climate variability of the Baltic Sea area and the response of the general circulation of the Baltic Sea to climate variability. [Paper] In: ICEs Annual Science Conference. , 22.-24.09.2010, Nantes, France . ICES Council Meeting Papers, 2010 (S:01).

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Abstract

The warming trend for the entire globe (1850-2005) is 0.04°C per decade. A specific warming period started around 1980 and continues at least until 2005, with a temperature increase of about 0.17°C per decade. This trend is equally well evident for many areas on the globe, especially on the northern hemisphere in observations and climate simulations. For the Baltic Sea catchment, which lies between maritime temperate and continental sub-Arctic climate zones, an even stronger warming of about 0.4°C per decade appeared since 1980. The annual mean air temperature increased by about 1°C until 2004. A similar warming trend could be observed for the sea surface temperature of the Baltic Sea. Even the annual mean water temperatures averaged spatially and vertically for the deep basins of the
Baltic Sea show similar trends. We provide a detailed analysis of the climate variability and associated
changes in the Baltic Sea catchment area as well as in the Baltic Sea itself for the period 1958-2009, in which the recent acceleration of the climate warming happened. Changes in the atmospheric conditions causes corresponding changes in the Baltic Sea, not only for temperature and salinity but also for currents and circulation. These changes in the physical conditions have strong impact on the
marine ecosystem structure and processes.

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