The Experience in Applying a Water Reservoir Operation Model Using Dynamic Volume Nomograms in Exercising Special-Purpose Spring Water Releases

Simulation models of river reservoir functioning in which dynamic volume nomograms are used to consider the non-horizontal nature of the reservoir water surface have not been so far applied due to the lack of accurate and fast-working computer realizations of such models. In 2015–2016, the authors of this paper developed such a program. In the periods of carrying out special-purpose spring water releases to the lower reaches of the Volga River in 2016 and in 2017, the developed model was used in a trial mode for a designing the reservoirs’ water regime. The results of water releases carried out under complicated hydrological and economic conditions proved the high performance of the model and confirmed the prospects of its application to solve the inverse problem.     

Effect of the East Siberian barrier on the echinoderm dispersal in the Arctic Ocean

The distributional patterns were analyzed for 43 species and 33 genera of echinoderms in the Laptev and East Siberian seas and for 59 species and 35 genera of the asteroid species in the Arctic Ocean. The probable colonization route through the Arctic was suggested for each species based on (1) the distributional patterns of the Arctic species, (2) the distributional patterns of the closely related species, and (3) the location of the center of the diversity of the species belonging to a certain genus. The species of the Pacific origin prevailed in the asteroid fauna of the Arctic seas. The asteroid species diversity and the ratio of the species of Pacific origin decreased from the Barents towards the Laptev Sea and increased, respectively, in the East Siberian and the Chukchee seas. The species range limits were found for 19 species in the East Siberian Sea compared to only 3 species in the Laptev Sea. The East Siberian Sea was a limiting area for the dispersal of four species groups: (1) invaders from the North Pacific dispersing along the Asian coast of the Arctic (shallow-water stenobathic species), (2) invaders from the North Pacific dispersing along the American coast of the Arctic and further on back into the Arctic along the Eurasian coast (secondarily Atlantic species); (3) originally invaders from the Northern Atlantic; (4) representatives of the Arctic autochthonous fauna. A great width of the biotic boundaries (i.e., the zones of the species range boundaries crowding) was typical for the Arctic Basin, which was a sign of their young geological age.     

Submergence of the Sublittoral–Bathyal Species into the Abyssal Zone of the Sea of Japan

Oceanology - The bathymetric ranges of the same deep-sea (>2000 m) species in the Sea of Japan and outside it are compared. Among 85 deep-sea species of the Sea of Japan mega- and...