Is the Adriatic returning to dominate the production of Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water?

Since the Aegean took over the deep water production of the Eastern Mediter ranean at the end of the 1980s, the proficiency of the Adriatic as a format ion site has been under question. The salt supply in the intermediate water enabling the Adriatic to produce dense water was diminished because of a s alinity decrease by upwelling mid-depth waters. Tracer data indeed indicate that the deep layer ill the Adriatic has not been ventilated for most of t he 1990s. The data presented also show that the dilution of the intermediat e water reached a peak in 1995, after which more ventilated and saline wate rs were added. The recent increase of salt supply to the Adriatic by an ext remely saline intermediate water mass supplied from the Aegean, establishes the preconditioning required to resume dense water production in the Adria tic.