Influence of River Runoff and Change in Salinity on the Composition of Coastal Fouling Community of the Northwestern Part of the Black Sea

Abstract

The paper deals with the study of the influence of the transformed river waters incoming into the northwestern part of the Black Sea from the Dnieper-Bug estuary on the composition and quantitative parameters of coastal fouling community located on the path of their distribution. It has been found that the species richness of the community and relative biomass of its species, with the exception of Bivalvia, increased with distance from the mouth of the Dnieper-Bug estuary toward Odesa Bay. The taxonomic structure of the community changed along salinity gradient. A degree of community stability was assessed at different sections of the studied area of water using the index approach and the ABC-method. It has been shown that the intensity of stress influence of the transformed river waters on the coastal fouling community decreased with distance from the mouth of the Dnieper-Bug estuary.