Regional Assessment of Climate Change in the Mediterranean Volume 1: Air, Sea and Precipitation and Water

Volume 1 of a three-volume final report describes, synthesizes and analyzes the results of the four-year Integrated Research Project CIRCE – Climate Change and Impact Research: Mediterranean Environment, funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. Conducted under the auspices of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy, CIRCE was designed to predict and to quantify the physical impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean, and to assess the most influential consequences for the region’s population. This volume incorporates the first two parts of the report, reviewing current knowledge of observed climate variability and trends in the Mediterranean, and including descriptions of available temperature and precipitation station and gridded data sets.

PART I: Air, Sea and Precipitation.- Introduction.- 1. Past and Current Climate Changes in the Mediterranean Region.- 2. Future Climate Projections.- 3. Mechanisms of Climate Variability, Air Quality and Impacts of Atmospheric Constituents in the Mediterranean Region.- 4. Detection and Attribution.- Summary and Major Findings.- PART II: Water.- Introduction.- 5. The Hydrological Cycle of the Mediterranean.- 6. Impacts of Climate Change on Freshwater Bodies: Quantitative Aspects.- 7. Impacts of Climate Change on Water Quality.- Summary and Major Findings.- Index.