On the sea level rise in the Russian part of the Vistula Lagoon

The peculiarities are studied of variations of average annual and extreme levels in the Russian sector of the Vistula Lagoon situated in the southeastern part of the Baltic Sea. The main regularity of interannual variations of averaged characteristics of the lagoon level is a steady trend towards their increase: the mean level increase is characterized by the linear trend increasing depending on the length of the series, from 1.7–1.9 mm/year (Baltiisk, 1860–2006; Kaliningrad, 1901–2006) to 3.6–3.7 mm/year (Kaliningrad, Baltiisk, Krasnoflotskoe, 1959–2006). On the sea coast (Pionerskii, 1959–2006), this trend in the second half of the 20th century amounted to 2.6 mm/year only. The obtained results illustrate the response of level variations in the Baltic Sea lagoons to the global climate warming and indicate that the long-term evolution of average characteristics of the Vistula Lagoon level cannot be explained only by the increase in the level of the World Ocean and adjacent seas intensified in recent decades but is caused by the changes in the wind load and precipitation in the catchment basin.