•Home

•Publications

A Digital AtlasThe main task of this project is to provide a digital atlas of the physical oceanographic properties of the Black Sea based on a comprehensive update of available historical hydrological data sets. The atlas, which will be made available without restriction on a CD-ROM, will contain gridded climatology statistics, seasonal and long-term variability assessments, and a hydrological database that exceeds 100,000 hydrographic casts with a software interface for convenient access to the primary data. This database will be the most complete hydrological data set for the Black Sea in existence.

Studies in Decadal and Inter-Annual Variability This project will provide for the first time estimates of decadal and inter-annual variability in the Black Sea, not only in the coastal zone, but also in deep-water regions. Hydrological data will be used to compute reliable and detailed climatological parameters that describe oceano-graphic features including the thermohaline, cold intermediate layer, sound speed structure, vertical stability, and circulation patterns. Long-term signals in the Black Sea can be understood in terms of the response of an enclosed sea to changes in the Europe-North Atlantic climate system. This response can, in turn, influence processes in the interconnected basin of the Eastern Mediterranean through water exchange. This research will estimate the degree of confidence and level of uncertainty associated with such long-term signals.

Background The Black Sea has been an object of exploration and intensive scientific research for a historically long period of time. The basin attracts oceanographers because of a unique hydrographic structure originating from a combination of restricted exchange with the Mediterranean and a large fresh water input. The resulting sharply-stratified, two-layer structure prevents deep convective mixing of the basin interior and results in the formation of a permanent anoxic pool beneath the pycnocline. A series of climatological hydrological atlases, reflecting the available data, were published in the thirty year period beginning in the 1950's. The existing Marine Hydrophysical Institute (MHI) Black Sea data set exceeds 100,000 hydrographic casts and is two times larger than the one used in the last published atlas. This set provides an opportunity to estimate climatological fields more reliably and in greater detail than ever before. These fields not only have intrinsic value but also are the basis for investigations of climate processes on scales ranging from the mesoscale to the decadal.

Regard for a Fragile Ecosystem During the last decade appreciable political and economical changes have occurred in the Black Sea region. Two examples are the rise of the new independent states and the intensification of oil tanker use in the Sea. These changes have had a profound influence on the Black Sea ecosystem. Recently, it was found the ecosystem is under serious threat from environmental changes resulting from increased discharge of nutrients and pollutants, land-based activities, and extensive fisheries activity. Ecosystem changes, manifested in enhanced eutro-phication and reduction in biodiversity, have stimulated a number of joint international research projects. Several of these projects involved a substantial physical oceano-graphy and data collection component but the aim was not to compute a new climatology or to estimate long-term trends from available data. In addition, the data sets have been somewhat limited. There is a clear need for the construction of a new, comprehensive database.