Research focused on the issue of increased salinity levels in the Mediterranean Basin, and its consequences on the Mediterranean’s border ecological forestry.
Each year the temperature of the deep layer of the Western Mediterranean increases by 0.002ºC, and its salt levels increase by 0.001 units of salinity. These changes, although minimal from year to year, have been continuously and constantly occurring at a faster pace since the 1990s.
Also, the Mediterranean is a closed space, so certain land-use issues such as damming rivers could change how much freshwater is flowing into the ocean and diluting the saltwater.
The effect this may have will be dire, consequently affecting all trades of farming and harvesting around the borders of the Mediterranean sea, particularly affecting the Olive industries (olive oil, canned olives, etc..). More urgent will be the effect increased salinity will have on ecological cycles and wildlife that are reliant on foliage on the fertile coasts of Spain, Italy and Greece, routinely damaging self-sustaining habitats for thousands of species to neo-Messinian proportions.
