Ecogeographical assessment of the possible impact of mariculture on coastal waters in the Eastern Black Sea

Trends in mariculture development in Russia are studied. Global experience in controlling the after-effects of fish farm operation for the marine environment are analyzed. Statistical procesing of the data of field oceanographic surveys, carried out in 1957–1989 in a one-mile coastal zone in the Eastern Black Sea, was implemented. Results of studying natural factors determining the input of organic pollutants and the rate of their biogeochemical transformation, as well as the conditions of sediment accumulation and water aeration in the Russian part of the Black Sea coast were systematized. It was found that powerful natural self-purification mechanisms of aquatic environment act along the North Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. The conclusion on almost complete environmental safety of a marine underwater fish farm, which is under construction in the Sochi Region (Khosta Settl.) was made. Attention is attracted to the need to take into account the high hydrodynamic activity in the investigated region in the process of fixing keepnets on anchors while anchoring the fish farm.     

Computation of Tsunamis in the East (Japan) Sea Using Dynamically Interfaced Nested Model

-- A study of 1983 and 1993 tsunami events in the East (Japan) Sea using multigrid dynamically-interfaced finite difference models was performed to produce detailed features of coastal inundations along the eastern coast of Korea. The computational domain is composed of several subregions with different grid sizes connected in parallel or inclined directions. The innermost subregion represents the coastal alignment reasonably well and has a grid size of about 30 meters. Numerical simulations have been performed in the framework of shallow-water equations (linear, as well as nonlinear) over the plane or spherical coordinate system, depending on the dimensions of the subregion. Results of simulations show the general agreements with the observed data of the runup height for both tsunamis. The evolution of the distribution function of tsunami heights is studied numerically and it shows a tendency to the log-normal curve for a long distance from the source.     

Statistical Analysis of Water Quality Parameters in Seven Major Serbian Rivers during 2004‒2013 Period

Rivers on territory of the Republic of Serbia can be separated to three sea drainage basins: Black, Adriatic and Aegean. Majority of rivers belong to the Black Sea drainage basin. The Danube is the most important river in Serbia and one of the most important rivers of Europe. All rivers investigated in this paper represent direct or indirect tributaries of the Danube River and as that, they are belonging to the Black Sea drainage basin. In this study, the water quality status and the spatial and temporal trends of seven major rivers in Serbia were assessed through the application of ten parameters of Water Quality Index. Ten year (2004–2013) public database of environmental data was used. Into considerations were taken differences between every river individually and difference between sample positions on every single river. Based on the chemical parameters of water quality, it can be seen that the biggest rivers in Serbia show different values of WQ parameters. The highest WQ value is measured on the Drina River, while the lowest value is measured on the Ju?na Morava and the Tisza River. Analyses of parameters per period of year show that there is a statistically significant difference between values during warm and cold periods.     

Coastal changes at the Sulina mouth of the Danube River as a result of human activities

Sulina, the middle distributary of the Danube Delta, has been significantly changed by human activities over the past 150 yr. These include engineering works in the second half of the 19th century, when the channel was transformed for navigation and the construction of jetties which nowadays extend 8 km seawards. These interventions have strongly affected the natural processes of the Black Sea coast near the Sulina mouth. To the south of the Sulina mouth, the natural mild erosion has been reversed in the area close to the jetties where accretion is occurring, while southwards the greatest erosion rate along the entire Romanian coast, of more than 20 m/yr, has been recorded. Sediment accumulation in the northern part of the mouth is also huge and has brought to the creation and swift elongation of a sediment spit in several decades. Thus, the bay located here suffers from a rapid transformation into a lagoon.     

Satellite-based monitoring of contrasting characteristics of suspended sediment discharged from the Red and the Ma river systems along the northern coast of Vietnam

The northern coast of Vietnam has accumulated a significant amount of sediment discharged from the multiple distributaries of rivers such as the Red River and Ma River.While recent decreases of the sediment supply appears to have a significant impact on coastal erosion,the complex network of these distributaries makes it difficult to determine the overall spatiotemporal characteristics of sediment discharges and related topographic changes.The goal of the current study is to develop a satellite-based monitoring system for observation of turbidity discharged from the multiple rivers and to investigate the applicability of the developed monitoring system through a case study on the northern coast of Vietnam.Based on the in-situ observed data,a formulawas determined for estimation of the surface water turbidity as a function of the red band reflectance of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer(MODIS)images.The formula was then combined with a newly determined threshold for cloud-masking to obtain maps of the nearshore turbidity patterns.These maps capture the spatiotemporal water surface turbidity along the entire coast of the Red River Delta and the coast around theMa River mouth over the past sixteen years with frequency of twice a day.Finally,long-term trends of the turbidity patterns from multiple rivers were compared with the in-situ observation data and it was found that the Red River and the Ma River showed clearly contrasting characteristics,which reasonably explain the recent coastal shoreline changes and characteristics of sediment sampled along the coast.     

Tomography and velocity structure of the crust and uppermost mantle in southeastern Europe obtained from surface wave analysis

A set of two hundred shear-wave velocity models of the crust and uppermost mantle in southeast Europe is determined by application of a sequence of methods for surface-waves analysis. Group velocities for about 350 paths have been obtained after analysis of more than 600 broadband waveform records. Two-dimensional surface-wave tomography is applied to the group-velocity measurements at selected periods and after regionalisation, two sets of local dispersion curves (for Rayleigh and Love waves) are constructed in the period range 8–40 s. The shear-wave velocity models are derived by applying non-linear iterative inversion of local dispersion curves for grid cells predetermined by the resolving power of data. The period range of observations limits the velocity models to depths of 70 km in accordance to the penetration of the surface waves with a maximum period of 40 s. Maps of the Moho boundary depth, velocity distribution above and below Moho boundary, as well as velocity distribution at different depths are constructed. Well-known geomorphologic units (e.g. the Pannonian basin, southeastern Carpathians, Dinarides, Hellenides, Rodophean massif, Aegean Sea, western Turkey) are delineated in the obtained models. Specific patterns in the velocity models characterise the southeast Carpathians and adjacent areas, coast of Albania, Adriatic coast of southern Italy and the southern coast of the Black Sea. The models obtained in this study for the western Black Sea basin shows the presence of layers with shear-wave velocities of 3.5 km/s–3.7 km/s in the crust and thus do not support the hypothesis of existence of oceanic structure in this region.     

Dynamics and Coastal Effects of Tsunamis Generated by Asteroids Impacting the Black Sea

Two-dimensional (2D) and one-dimensional (1D) shallow-water models are used to evaluate the seashore effects of the tsunami generated by an asteroid impacting the western regions of the Black Sea about 208 km from the coast. The tsunami’s speed and the effects on the coastal regions depend on many factors, among which the most important is asteroid size. The tsunami generated by a 250-m asteroid reaches the nearest land location in 24 min and needs about 2 h to arrive at all Black Sea coast. The run-up value is about 7 m high on the Turkish and Crimean coasts. In the western Black Sea regions the wave height is two or three times smaller. The run-up values strongly depend on bathymetry and topography peculiarities. The run-in value in case of the tsunami generated by a 1,000-m asteroid is up to eight times larger than in case of a 250-m impactor, depending on location. The results reported herein are upper limit values. In case of the 250-m asteroid, the real wave amplitude may be up to two times smaller. The uncertainty factor decreases in case of larger asteroids. Ways of diminishing the social consequences are briefly discussed.     

Modeling the water resources of the Black and Mediterranean Sea river basins and their impact on regional mass changes

For the first time, a dedicated release of the hydrology and water use model WaterGAP3, has been developed to spatially explicit calculate hydrological fluxes within river basins draining into the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The main differences between the new regional version of the global WaterGAP3 model and the previously applied global version WaterGAP2 can be found in the spatial resolution, snow modeling, and water use modeling. Comparison with observations shows that WaterGAP3 features a more realistic representation of modeled river runoff and inflow into both seas. WaterGAP3 generates more inflow to both seas than WaterGAP2. In the WaterGAP3 simulation, contributions to the total runoff into the Black Sea from individual discharge regions show in general a good agreement to climatology derived runoff, but lesser importance of Georgian rivers for the basin's water. After the successful model validation WaterGAP3 has been applied to correct estimates of seawater mass derived from the GRACE gravity mission and to account for freshwater inflow into both basins. The performance of the WaterGAP3 regional solution has been evaluated by comparing the seawater mass derived from GRACE corrected for the leakage of continental hydrology, to an independent estimate derived from steric-corrected satellite altimetry with steric correction from regional oceanographic models. The agreement is higher in the Mediterranean Sea than in the Black Sea. Results using WaterGAP3 and WaterGAP2 are not significantly different. However the agreement with the altimetry-derived results is higher using WaterGAP2, due to the smaller annual amplitude of the continental hydrology leakage from WaterGAP3. We conclude that the regional model WaterGAP3 is capable of realistically quantifying water mass variation in the region, further developments have been identified.     

Global geoenvironmental problems: Black Sea basin

The issue of the geoenvironmental state of Black Sea basin, the final basin receiving the runoff of many large rivers of the European continent (Danube, Dnieper, Don, etc.) and considerable runoff from the nearby watersheds, including Turkish, is considered. The extent and geoenvironmental consequences of the large-scale changes in the hydrology, water balance, and hydrochemistry of the sea basin under the effect hydrotechnical interception and industrial pollution of river runoff are discussed. The genetic role of Black Sea rifting in one of the world’s largest oil-and-gas-bearing basins with its inherent thermal and geochemical processes, geoenvironmental conditions, and risks is emphasized. Improved information is given about the genesis of hydrogen sulfide dissolved in seawater and related to the processes of geochemical sulfate reduction of silt water sulfates under the effect of hydrocarbon gases, which mostly form in zones of deep catagenesis of sedimentary formations and lower crust rock metamorphism. It is emphasized that the ecological stability of a sea basin showing such complex and contradictory relationships with natural and technogenic objects and processes can be ensured only by joint and well coordinated efforts of the countries of the Black Sea and nearby regions aimed on rational nature and water management, including when laying pipelines on Black Sea bed and developing the power resources of the Black Sea oil-and-gas-bearing basin.     

Disseminated neoplasia in blue mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, from the Black Sea, Romania

Disseminated neoplasia, also called leukemia or hemic neoplasia, has been detected in 15 species of marine bivalve mollusks worldwide. The disease is characterized by the presence of single anaplastic cells with enlarged nuclei and sometimes frequent mitosis, in hemolymph vessels and sinuses. The neoplastic cells gradually replace normal hemocytes leading to the increased mortality of animals. The neoplasia reaches epizootic prevalences in blue mussels, Mytilus trossulus, in some areas, whereas prevalences in Mytilus edulis are generally very low. Mytilus galloprovincialis was suggested to be resistant to the disease although very low prevalences were documented from Spain in the Atlantic Ocean and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. A case of disseminated neoplasia was discovered in M. galloprovincialis from among 200 specimens studied from the coast of the Romanian Black Sea. Histological preparation revealed the presence of large anaplastic cells with lobed nuclei. This observation extends the geographic range of marine bivalve mollusks with disseminated neoplasia to include the Black Sea.     

Coastal changes at the Sulina mouth of the Danube River as a result of human activities

Sulina, the middle distributary of the Danube Delta, has been significantly changed by human activities over the past 150 yr. These include engineering works in the second half of the 19th century, when the channel was transformed for navigation and the construction of jetties which nowadays extend 8 km seawards.These interventions have strongly affected the natural processes of the Black Sea coast near the Sulina mouth. To the south of the Sulina mouth, the natural mild erosion has been reversed in the area close to the jetties where accretion is occurring, while southwards the greatest erosion rate along the entire Romanian coast, of more than 20 m/yr, has been recorded.Sediment accumulation in the northern part of the mouth is also huge and has brought to the creation and swift elongation of a sediment spit in several decades. Thus, the bay located here suffers from a rapid transformation into a lagoon.     

Different-Scale Variations in the Abundance and Species Diversity of Metazoan Microzooplankton in the Coastal Zone of the Black Sea

Water Resources - The short-term, seasonal, and interannual variations in the abundance and species composition of the Black Sea metazoan microzooplankton have been analyzed at the open coastal...     

Seismotectonic Model of the Northwest Caucasus: Geological-Geophysical Aspect

Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth - In connection with the seismic hazard assessment of the Black Sea coast of Russia, the problem of the formation of seismicity in the Northwest Caucasus in...     

Long-Term Water Level Variations in the Kiliya Branch of the Danube Delta

Water level variations in the Kiliya Branch of the Danube Delta over the period of 40 years (1958–1997) were analyzed. These level variations were subdivided into three components related to long-term variations of the share of the branch runoff and its redistribution within a year resulting from the Danube flow regulation; subsidence of deltaic deposits; and backup caused by the rising Black Sea level. It was revealed that, during the low-flow period, this backup had propagated to the river mouth at a distance of 160 km.     

Variations in wind direction and speed from arctic to the Caspian Sea as a manifestation of modern climate changes

The regularities in present-day variations in the wind speed vector are examined at 18 stations along the section from Kola Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. Data on long-term variations in the major climate-forming factors and climatic parameters are generalized. The statistically significant tendency toward a considerable decline in the wind speed with a maximum module and the most frequent wind speeds of zonal, mostly western, directions (this tendency has been revealed earlier for the eastern coast of the middle and southern Caspian Sea) was found to hold for the greater part of the European Russia. Possible causes of present-day climate changes and their manifestations at the regional level are analyzed. A possible mechanism of present-day climate changes is proposed     

The lithosphere structure and geodynamics of the West and East Black Sea Basins

The velocity structure of the Black Sea lithosphere has been studied using the local seismic tomography method based on the Backus-Gilbert approach and applied for a quite large amount of seismological data. As seismic sources, we used the earthquakes that occurred within the Black Sea and adjoining regions and generated seismic waves recorded by seismic stations around the Black Sea. This yielded information on the 3D distribution of P-waves within the most heterogeneous and poorly investigated uppermost layer of the Black Sea region (down to a depth of 60 km). The interpretation of these results, together with new data on the velocity structure of the crust of the Black Sea led to the conclusion about the different lithosphere beneath the West and the East Black Sea Basins. This can be explained by origination of the depressions in the western and eastern parts of the Black Sea at different microplates and by specific features in their development at rifting and post-rifting stages.     

Vertical Crustal Motion along the Mediterranean and Black Sea Coast Derived from Ocean Altimetry and Tide Gauge Data

Tide gauge (TG) data along the northern Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts are compared to the sea-surface height (SSH) anomaly obtained from ocean altimetry (TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1/2) for a period of nine years (1993–2001). The TG measures the SSH relative to the ground whereas the altimetry does so with respect to the geocentric reference frame; therefore their difference would be in principle a vertical ground motion of the TG sites, though there are different error sources for this estimate as is discussed in the paper. In this study we estimate such vertical ground motion, for each TG site, from the slope of the SSH time series of the (non-seasonal) difference between the TG record and the altimetry measurement at a point closest to the TG. Where possible, these estimates are further compared with those derived from nearby continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) data series. These results on vertical ground motion along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts provide useful source data for studying, contrasting, and constraining tectonic models of the region. For example, in the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and in the western coast of Greece, a general subsidence is observed which may be related to the Adriatic lithosphere subducting beneath the Eurasian plate along the Dinarides fault.     

Probabilistic Regularities in Setup Variations in the Level of a Large Inland Water Body: Case Study of the Caspian Sea

The results of probabilistic analysis of data on setup level variations collected during long-term observations at all gages along the Caspian Sea coast are discussed. A procedure for evaluating low-probability sea level extremes is proposed. Estimates are given for the probabilities of outstanding setups in the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov.     

Modeling of marine litter drift and beaching in the Japan Sea

Characteristics of drift and beaching of floating marine litter in the Japan Sea are examined numerically using the reanalysis data of the Japan Sea Forecasting System of Kyushu University. The residence time of model marine litter deployed uniformly over the surface of the Japan Sea strongly depends on the buoyancy ratio. However, almost all litter beaches or flows out through straits within 3 years. Experiments with inputs of litter imposed at large cities and the Tsushima Straits as well as river basins of the Japan Sea exhibit a good agreement with beach surveys with regard to country ratios of beached litter along the Japanese coast in cases of lighters. In a case of lighter, almost all lighters originating from Japan beach along the Japanese coast, while almost all lighters originating from a country surrounding the Japan Sea except Japan beach along the coast of that country and the Japanese coast.