Influence of the Chernaya River Runoff during High and Low Water on the Ecological State of the Apex of the Sevastopol Bay Water Area

Abstract

Purpose. Climatic conditions for the winter and spring river floods in Crimea are assessed by the example of the Chernaya River. The scientific literature data permitted to analyze salinity dynamics in the Sevastopol Bay during an intensive flood, which is extremely rare in contrast to the high water cases occurring rather frequently.

Methods and Results. Based on the available information and using the analyzed in situ data on the Sevastopol Bay apex and the Chernaya River obtained by the Marine Hydrophysical Institute in 2007–2017, considered are the meteorological conditions for a winter-spring high water. The impact of high water upon the hydrological regime and the ecological state of the Sevastopol Bay apex and the Chernaya River mouth is analyzed. Contribution of a winter-spring high water to pollution of the Sevastopol Bay apex with nutrients is assessed. The ecological state of the bay apex during the peculiar winter-spring high water in February, 2015 is compared to that during the low water in September, 2015.

Conclusions. The increased content of inorganic nitrogen during a winter-spring flood should be taken into account while calculating the assimilation capacity of the ecosystem under study and assessing the trophic index. The joint analysis of the expeditionary in situ data and the available information from the scientific literary made it possible to conclude that in course of the last decade, salinity in the Chernaya River mouth gradually increased. This can testify the fact that frequency and intensity of the winter-spring floods tend to go down.

Keywords

apex of the Sevastopol Bay, Chernaya River, winter-spring flood, nutrients, trophic level.

Acknowledgements

The investigation is carried out within the framework of the state task on theme No. 0827-2018-0004 “Complex interdisciplinary investigations of the oceanologic processes conditioning functioning and evolution of the Black and Azov seas’ ecosystems of the coastal zones” and at the RFBR partial support of the research project No. 18-45-920002 “Self-purification capacity of ecosystems of the Sevastopol Bay water areas depending on the anthropogenic load”.

Original Russian Text © E.E. Sovga, T.V. Khmara, 2020,
published in MORSKOY GIDROFIZICHESKIY ZHURNAL, Vol. 36, Iss. 1, pp. 31–40 (2020)

For citation

Sovga, E.E. and Khmara, T.V., 2020. Influence of the Chernaya River Runoff during High and Low Water on the Ecological State of the Apex of the Sevastopol Bay Water Area. Physical Oceanography, [e-journal] 27(1), pp. 28-36. doi:10.22449/1573-160X-2020-1-28-36

DOI

10.22449/1573-160X-2020-1-28-36

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