Physio-geographical characteristics of the marine regions and their catchment areas of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea marine system

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea comprise a semi-enclosed intercontinental Marine System (MBMS), bordered by the Eurasian and African continents. Its total marine surface is circa 3 × 106 km2, while its drainage basin exceeds 7 × 106 km2; the latter includes the watersheds of 39 large (>104 km2) river systems, which correspond to about 83% of its total area. The MBMS includes four basins, that is, Western, Central, Eastern Mediterranean (WMED, CMED, EMED) and Black Sea (BLS), which are subsequently divided into 11 marine regions. Thus, the WMED includes the Alboran (ALB), the West MED (WEST) and the Tyrrhenian (TYR); the CMED consists of the Adriatic (ADR), the Ionian (ION) and the Centric MED (CEN); the EMED includes the Levantine (LEV), the Aegean (AEG) and the Marmara (MAR) and the BLS except of the Black Sea (BLA) includes the Azov Sea (AZOV). The present work aims to: (i) describe geographically the MBMS marine regions and their boundaries according to International Hydrographic Office and the common practice for environmental studies; (ii) provide and compare key-morphometric characteristics of all marine regions and their catchment areas and (iii) examine the possibility of a better separation of the existing marine regions.