Provisions Concerning the Neutralization of the Black Sea and Danube River Contained in the General Treaty Between Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey. Signed March 30, 1856.

1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (S2) ◽  
pp. 114-116
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
G. V. Zuyev

Black Sea sprat Sprattus sprattus phalericus (Risso, 1826) is one of the abundant species of fish in the Sea of Azov – Black Sea basin. Due to its large number sprat plays an extremely important role in the ecosystem of the sea, being an intermediate link between zooplankton and representatives of the highest trophic level – large predatory fish, dolphins, and birds. At the same time sprat is one of the important commercial fish in all the Black Sea countries, steadily being on the second place of catch volume in recent decades (after anchovy). The total catch reaches 100 thousand tons. Turkey and Ukraine are the main producing countries. Monitoring and forecast of biological state of sprat population with rising fishing intensity and climate changes are urgent tasks. The research subject of this article is the long-term (2000–2016) dynamics of biological (qualitative) parameters determining the population fecundity of Black Sea sprat in Crimean region, the current state of reproductive potential, and the conditions for its formation. The article is based on the results of own research. Parameters determining the population fecundity – the length-age structure of the spawning part population, the absolute individual fecundity, and the sex structure population (ratio between females and males) – were studied. In the long-term plan (in 2011–2016 compared with 2000–2004) the average length of spawning females decreased by 1.22 times (from 7.36 to 6.03 cm). It was accompanied by a decrease in the absolute individual fecundity by 2.39 times (from 13 625 to 5690 eggs). The numerical ratio between females and males decreased by 1.23 times (from 1.95 to 1.59). Simultaneously the sprat stock in the northern part of the Black Sea was reduced by more than 2.5 times (from > 500 thousand tons to < 200 thousand tons). As a result, the population fecundity of sprat in Crimean region decreased by more than 7 times (2.39 × 1.23 × 2.5). The conditions of sprat fishing in the northern part of the Black Sea (from the mouth of the Danube River to the Kerch Strait) were studied. They showed 2-fold decrease (from 251.9 thousand tons in 2000–2004 to 129.1 thousand tons in 2011–2016) in the total catch and more than 2.3-fold decrease (from 50.4 to 21.4 thousand tons) in average annual catch in this region. On the contrary, in the Crimean shelf the total catch at that time increased by 1.2 times (from 76.9 to 92.2 thousand tons), and its average annual value remained constant (15.4 thousand tons). While reducing the stock by 2.5 times, this means that the fishing pressure on the Crimean population increased 2.5 times. This fact suggests considering the factor of fishing as the main cause of its degradation. Validity of this version is confirmed by the fact of conjugacy (inverse connection) of interannual fluctuations between the catch and the length-age parameters of sprat in Crimean region in 2003–2013 previously found: catches over 15–16 thousand tons were accompanied by a next year decrease in the fish average length. Regulation of fishing is a necessary condition for preventing further degradation, for restoring and maintaining sustainable state of sprat population in Crimean region and its reproductive potential. The negative impact of natural (climatic and trophic) factors on the state of the population should be recognized as a secondary one. Local overfishing indicates indirectly the structuring of the commercial stock of Black Sea sprat, its division into a number of geographical aggregations (stock units), i. e. the presence of intraspecific differentiation.


Geology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 761-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjan de Leeuw ◽  
Stephen J. Vincent ◽  
Anton Matoshko ◽  
Andrei Matoshko ◽  
Marius Stoica ◽  
...  

Abstract We describe a late Miocene to early Pliocene axial drainage system in the East Carpathian foreland, which was an important sediment supplier to the Black Sea and the Dacian Basin. Its existence explains the striking progradation of the northwest Black Sea shelf prior to the onset of sediment supply from the continental-scale Danube River in the late Pliocene to Pleistocene. This axial drainage system evolved due to the diachronous along-strike evolution of the Carpathians and their foreland; continental collision, overfilling, slab breakoff, and subsequent exhumation of the foreland occurred earlier in the West Carpathians than in the East Carpathians. After overfilling of the western foreland, excess sediment was transferred along the basin axis, giving rise to a 300-km-wide by 800-km-long, southeast-prograding river-shelf-slope system with a sediment flux of ∼12 × 103 km3/m.y. Such late-stage axial sediment systems often develop in foreland basins, in particular, where orogenesis is diachronous along strike. Substantial lateral sediment transport thus needs to be taken into account, even though evidence of these axial systems is often eroded following slab breakoff and inversion of their foreland basins.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Sophie Maier ◽  
Cristian R. Teodoru ◽  
Bernhard Wehrli

Abstract. River deltas with their mosaic of ponds, channels and seasonally inundated areas act as the last continental hotspots of carbon turnover along the land-ocean aquatic continuum. There is increasing evidence for the important role of riparian wetlands in the transformation and emission of terrestrial carbon to the atmosphere. The considerable spatial heterogeneity of river deltas, however, forms a major obstacle for quantifying carbon emissions and their seasonality. While river reaches crossing the delta can serve as reference systems, delta lakes are often dominated by aquatic production and channels act as collection systems for carbon exported from adjacent wetlands. In order to quantify carbon turnover and emissions in the complex mosaic of the Danube Delta, we conducted monthly field campaigns over two years at 19 sites spanning river reaches, channels and lakes. Here we report greenhouse gas fluxes (CO2 and CH4) from the freshwater systems of the Danube Delta and present the first seasonally resolved estimates of its freshwater carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Furthermore, we quantify the lateral carbon transport of the Danube River to the Black Sea. We estimate the delta’s CO2 and CH4 emissions to be 65 GgC yr−1, of which about 8 % are released as CH4. The median CO2 fluxes from river branches, channels and lakes are 25, 93 and 5.8 mmol m−2 yr−1, respectively. Median total CH4 fluxes amount to 0.42, 2.0 and 1.5 mmol m−2 yr−1. While lakes do have the potential to act as CO2 sinks in summer, they are generally the largest emitters of CH4. Small channels showed the largest range in emissions including a CO2 and CH4 hotspot sustained by adjacent wetlands. The channels thereby contribute disproportionately to the delta’s emissions considering their limited surface area. In terms of lateral export, we estimate the net export of the Danube Delta to the Black Sea to about 160 GgC yr−1, which only marginally increases the carbon load from the upstream river catchment (8490 GgC yr−1) by about 2 %. While this contribution of the delta seems small, deltaic carbon yield (45.6 gC m−2 yr−1, net export load/surface area) is about 4-fold higher than the riverine carbon yield from the catchment (10.6 gC m−2 yr−1).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Angela Ciliberti ◽  
Eric Jansen ◽  
Diana Azevedo ◽  
Murat Gunduz ◽  
Mehmet Ilicak ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;The Black Sea physical analysis and Forecasting System (BSFS) is part of the Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Centre (BS-MFC) for the Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS). It provides analysis every day analysis and 10 days forecast fields for the blue ocean variables (including temperature, salinity, sea surface height, mixed layer depth and currents) in the Black Sea region since. In this work, we present the new version of the operational system that will be part of the next CMEMS &amp;#160;release. The hydrodynamical core model is based on NEMO v4.0, solved on 1/40&amp;#186; horizontal resolution spatial grid (including the overall Black Sea, the Bosporus Strait and part of the Marmara Sea) and 121 vertical levels with z-star. The core model uses ECMWF analysis and forecast atmospheric forcing and GPCP monthly climatological precipitation for computing heat, water and momentum fluxes. A total number of 72 rivers is accounted, as monthly climatology provided by SESAME project. The model implements a new representation of the Danube River with interannual river discharge datasets provided by the National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management. One of the main innovations of this system is the opening of the Bosporus Strait by using a box-approach in a portion of the Marmara Sea: it is achieved thanks to high resolution temperature, salinity, sea surface height, zonal and meridional velocity solutions provided by a novel implementation of the Marmara Sea model including straits based on Shyfem: it represents the optimal interface between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The hydrodynamical model is online coupled to an upgraded version of the OceanVar, the CMCC data assimilation scheme, able to assimilate SLA L3 satellite data, T/S in-situ profiles and SST from CMEMS TACs. The contribution focuses on model setup description, processing system and validation. To evaluate BSFS pre-operational run and monitor the operational production, we provide metrics as proposed within GODAE/Oceanpredict and MERSEA/MyOcean (which includes CLASS 1, 2 and 4 metrics).&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Cretescu ◽  
Zsofia Kovacs ◽  
Liliana Lazar ◽  
Adrian Burada ◽  
Madalina Sbarcea ◽  
...  

The Danube Delta is the newest land formed by both transporting sediments brought by Danube River, which flows into the Black Sea and by traversing an inland region where water spreads and deposits sediments. Diurnal tidal action is low (only 8–9 cm), therefore the sediments would wash out into the water body faster than the river deposits it. However, a seasonal fluctuation of water level of 20 cm was observed in the Black Sea, contributing to alluvial landscape evolution in the Danube Delta. The Danube Delta is a very low flat plain, lying 0.52 m above Mean Black Sea Level with a general gradient of 0.006 m/km and only 20% of the delta area is below zero level. The main control on deposition, which is a combination of river, wind-generated waves, and tidal processes, depends on the strength of each one. The other two factors that play a major role are landscape position and the grain size distribution of the source sediment entering the delta from the river. The Danube Delta is a natural protected area in the South-Eastern part of Romania, declared a Biosphere Reserve through the UNESCO “Man and Biosphere” Programme. Water is a determining factor for all the human settlements in the Biosphere Reserve, the whole Danube Delta being structured by the three branches of the Danube (Chilia, Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe (Saint George)). Our case study is focused on the Sulina branch, also named Sulina Channel, which offers the shortest distance between the Black Sea (trough Sulina Port) and Tulcea (the most important city of the Danube Delta from economic, social and cultural points of view) for both fluvial and marine ships. The improvement of water resources management is the main topic of this chapter, in terms of water quality indicators, which will be presented in twenty-nine monitoring points, starting since a few years ago and updated to nowadays. During the study period, significant exceedances of the limit value were detected in case of nitrate-N (3.9–4.6 mg/L) at the confluence (CEATAL 2) with the Saint George branch and in the Sulina Channel after the Wastewaters Treatment Plant (WWTP) discharge area, as well as near two settlements, namely Gorgova and Maliuc. The higher concentrations of Nitrogen-based nutrients were caused by the leakage from the old sewage systems (where these exist) and the diffuse loads.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document