Marine Water Areas Research Articles

Geoinformation technologies of environmental monitoring in the Black Sea after Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant disaster

The article offers the implementation of the proposed approach to the assessment and forecasting of indicators of environmental monitoring of marine water areas. It is an important component of the process of information support for decision-making in the field of environmental safety. The south-western part of the Black Sea water area was as the test region, was suffered from a negative environmental impact of a terrorist attack by Russian armed forces in the area of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant. The attack caused the destruction of the facility and the leakage of water from the Kakhovska reservoir with catastrophic consequences for the Northern Black Sea region. The authors proposed to apply a combination of data from contact monitoring of hydrophysical indicators, remote sensing data and mathematical modeling based on geospatial data in the specialized geo-information software environment Delft3D Mesh Suite within the framework of the developed software component. The component provides for the automation of data collection and processing processes followed by modeling and forecasting and visualization hydrophysical processes in the water area. On the basis of the applied information technologies, an analysis was carried out and geomodels were built, describing the hydrophysical situation in the northwestern part of the Black Sea both before the disaster and after certain time intervals after it, like a week and a month). The dynamics of seawater salinity as an important indicator of the potential increase of biogenic substances in the composition of seawater, as well as the nature of the circulation of water masses, which can provide additional information about the features of the geographical distribution of pollutants in the area affected by the disaster, were analyzed. The need for further real-time ecological monitoring of the consequences of the disaster, especially in the most affected parts of the water area near the northwestern coast of the Black Sea and on the coastal areas of the land in this region with the implementation of the proposed information technologies, is substantiated.

Evaluation the toxic effect of copper ions on the condition indices of benthic diatom Actinocyclus subtilis (W.Gregory) Ralfs 1861 in the experiment

Introduction. Pollution of marine coastal areas lead to the relevance of environmental monitoring including application of biotesting methods based on- the cultures of unicellular algae. Microalgae have different species-specific resistance to pollutants that expands application of different species as bioindicators of marine pollution.
 The aim of the study was to determine the threshold concentration of copper ions (Cu2+) for the survival and increase in the cells number of benthic diatom Actinocyclus subtilis (W.Gregory) Ralfs 1861 (Bacillariophyta) under the wide range of toxicant concentrations during 10-day toxicological experiments.
 Material and methods. The response of strain culture of the benthic diatom A. subtilis to various concentrations of copper sulfate (ranged from 16 to 1024 μg/l in terms of Cu2+ ions) was studied. In accordance with the previously developed protocol, the following indices were evaluated: alterations in the absolute number and proportion (%) of alive cells in the test-culture, as well as the specific growth rate in the number of A. subtilis cells at different concentrations of toxicant. Counting of alive and dead cells was carried out by micrographs taken for 12–15 random viewing fields under Nikon Eclipse inverted light microscope.
 Results. It was found that in the control and at concentration of copper ions 16 μg/l, the increase in the absolute number of cells in culture is described by sigmoid response curve. At the control еhe exponential growth phase occurs on days 5–7 and at concentration of 16 µg/l on days 3–5 of the experiment. The threshold concentration of copper ions (32 μg/l) which is critical for the survival of A. subtilis was determined, which is 3–7 times lower than threshold level for other benthic diatom species. At concentration of 32 µg/l, the phases of acceleration and exponential growth on the abundance curve are absent. The proportion of living cells in the culture decreases to 80% of the control level on day 3 and to 39% by day 10. At Cu2+ concentrations of 64 µg/l and above, sharp inhibition and death of culture is observed as early as 1–3 days. A positive specific growth rate of A. subtilis culture was revealed in the period of 1–5 days at copper concentration of 16 and 
 32 µg/l, and at concentration of 64 µg/l and higher the culture dies off. Negative values of the specific growth rate for all concentrations of the toxicant within the period of 5–10 days were obtained.
 Limitations. By the results of 10-day experiments the effect of 8 concentrations of copper sulfate on the culture of marine benthic diatom A. subtilis was studied. Three replicates in each concentration and exposure time were measured (1350 measurements in total), which is sufficient sampling for statistically reliable determination of the threshold values of copper ion toxicity for given test object.
 Conclusion. Considering the results obtained, the benthic diatom A. subtilis is highly sensitive to copper ions impact and can be recommended as new test-object for toxicology, as well as for application in monitoring of marine water areas subject to technogenic pollution.

Analysis of radar images of the Sentinel-1 satellite using the EO Browser web resource

The article's purpose is to review the capabilities of the EO Browser web resource and tools for remote sensing data analysis and visualization. Examples of satellite images obtained using a synthetic aperture radar are given. The presented results were obtained during the processing of radar images of the Sentinel-1 satellite, which are freely available thanks to the implementation of the Copernicus program concept regarding the public availability of Earth remote sensing data. The results of satellite radar acquisition are used to prevent, preserve, and forecast natural or technogenic threats and risks, considering the high frequency of acquisition and the promptness of obtained data. The effectiveness of using the web resource in solving the environmental monitoring tasks in seawater areas, identifying accident sites, determining the area of oil spills, planning measures to eliminate the consequences and reduce environmental risks, and collecting the evidence base about the event is shown. The mechanism of reflection of the radar signal from various natural surfaces (including oil spills into the sea) and artificial objects (for detecting the position of sea vessels) is considered. A comparison of the effectiveness of using radar images of the Sentinel-1 satellite with optical images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite for monitoring the condition of forest areas was performed. Satellite radar images are a reliable data source for continuously monitoring unregulated woodland destruction. The results' practical significance lies in using EO Browser to solve a wide range of scientific, practical, and educational problems using radar images. Further research using satellite radar images and the EO Browser platform is related to environmental monitoring in marine water areas. This applies to issues related to the detection of accumulations of garbage and plastic on water surfaces. It is promising to use the potential of the web resource for position designing and rapid determination of the effectiveness of deploying ground corner reflectors during geodynamic monitoring of the earth's surface. Keywords: synthetic aperture radar, remote sensing, environmental monitoring

Household Food Security through Wetland Resources with Adaptation to Climate Change: An Empirical Analysis of Ranikor, Meghalaya, India

Wetland ecosystems are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth and include marshes, lakes, rivers, flood basins, estuarine deltas, ponds, rice fields, and marine water areas where the depth at low tide does not exceed 6 m. Tangible and intangible diverse resources and products of wetland functions have historically provided a source of income and livelihood for human beings. The present study investigated the different causes and the perceived indicators of food insecurity among the wetland dwellers, determined the wetland contribution to household food security and assessed the determinants of wetland based income with a view on the adaptive strategies adopted by the households residing around Ranikor, Meghalaya. Data was collected from 70 wetland resource-user households which was analyzed using simple percentage, t-test, regression analysis and Garrett ranking technique. The wetland resources contributed significantly to the household food security in the study area. It was found that climate change and limited labour were the major causes of food insecurity. Factors like household size, agricultural land area and age of the respondent determined the extraction of resources. Moreover, the study revealed crop diversification, re-digging of canal, construction of embankments and poultry rearing as the adaptive measures in the face of climate change having merits. The study recommends the need to design appropriate food production technologies that ensure sustainable use of wetland resources for food security as increasing population coupled with climate change will have drastic impact on the households relying on wetland for food security and income.

The impact of destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the environmental status of the Odesa area of the Black Sea

The paper provides a chronological description of the aftermath and the effect of blowing up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam by Russian occupation forces of 6 June 2023 on the seawater quality in the coastal zone of Odesa agglomeration, according to the results of operational environmental monitoring in the early weeks upon the man-made disaster. Such a description is indispensable for assessing the scope of pollution of marine water areas and calculation of the damage inflicted on the marine ecosystem and its natural resources, adjustment and verification of mathematical models which will further be used to prognosticate the consequences of the dam destruction for the marine ecosystem. According to the data published in open sources, development of the environmental, sanitary and microbiological situation in the coastal zone of the city of Odesa over June 2023 is described, the dynamics of some indices of the sea water quality are shown, and the pollutants the concentration of which exceeded the maximum permissible concentrations set for them, as well as sanitary and microbiological indices, according to which the population is forbidden from swimming in the sea, are indicated. In addition, as a consequence of the abnormal desalination of sea waters and the inflow of a large amount of nutrients and organic matter into the sea, the phenomenon of algal bloom is described, and a qualitative forecast of its consequences is provided. It is concluded that owing to the accumulated reserves of organic matter in the bottom sediment probability of hypoxic conditions and suffocation of hydrobionts in the summer periods will increase in the years to follow. It is in view of the accumulation of pollutants in bottom sediments and the expected secondary pollution of sea water that the biological diversity of the marine ecosystem within the Odesa region will degrade and the quality of its biological resources will deteriorate.

A system of environmentally important decision-making for the sustainable use of marine estuaries in the conditions of anthropogenic and climatic changes

Sustainable use of marine water areas is one of the priorities of preserving biodiversity and the environment as a whole. The problem of a clear plan of rehabilitation measures, which would be based on complex and balanced solutions arises for their effective restoration and further functioning. These decisions should take both environmental and economic aspects into account. Estuaries, unlike marine water areas, are more sensitive to anthropogenic and climatic changes. They are characterized by shallow water level, functioning in the conditions of limited water exchange, dependence on river flow and greater anthropogenic load compared to marine water areas. These features are the cause of more intensive changes in the structure of biocenoses, rise in emergency situations, loss of productivity and sustainability of ecosystems as a whole. Thus, there is a need to introduce environmental management for these reservoirs, which should be based on a multi-component decision support system. This system will make it possible to develop clear plans for the restoration of marine ecosystems and prevent negative changes and degradation in them. The proposed scheme for developing plans for the restoration of the ecosystems of estuaries is represented by three blocks. The first “Block of data collection” involves the implementation of 3 stages: assessment of the current state of the reservoir; definition of problems and their ranking; assessment of ecosystem services. The second block “Search for a solution” is based on 4 components: Component 1. Database management system; Component 2. Geoinformational system; Component 3. Mathematical and predictive models; Component 4. Informational and management system for choosing strategic and operational decisions. The third block “Implementation of measures” involves the implementation of 4 stages: environmental assessment of decisions and projects, implementation of environmental measures, evaluation of effectiveness, search for new solutions and their improvement. The proposed scheme will enable a comprehensive approach to the restoration of estuarine ecosystems and ensure their sustainable use.

Preliminary assessment of current population status of the Sakhalin taimen, Parahucho perryi (Brevoort, 1856), in Primorsky Krai (Russia)

The Sakhalin taimen, Parahucho perryi, occurs along the sea coast of Primorsky Krai, but to date, self-reproducing populations have only been noted in the central and northern coastal regions between the Kievka R. in the south and the Samarga R. in the north. The Pacifi c Branch of VNIRO (TINRO) surveyed the Sakhalin taimen populations during the fi eld work in the north-east of Primorsky Krai in 2018–2022. New information about the current population status of the Sakhalin taimen has been obtained. On the basis of original and compiled data, a general increase in the abundance of the species in the rivers Edinka and Samarga including surrounding marine water areas was revealed. The presence of all size groups from underyearlings to large individuals weighing more than 20 kg was noted. These facts suggest that the living conditions and natural reproduction of the Sakhalin taimen in the area favor the growth of its populations. Since the situation in the southern regions is worse, an action plan has been proposed for conservation and restoration of the species populations in Primorsky Krai, the main point of which is the need to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of Sakhalin taimen populations.

Різноманіття та розподіл дінофлагелят у водоймах України (критико-систематична ревізія)

A critical and systematic revision of the superclass Dinoflagellata of the type Miozoa of Ukraine was performed, and the results of the generalization of retrospective and modern data on their zonal and ecological and typological distribution were given. As of 2022, 366 species (393 species and intraspecific) belonging to 3 classes, 14 orders, 45 families and 98 genera are indicated for the territorial waters of Ukraine. Over the past two decades, 108 new species have been discovered. 100 species are new to the Ukrainian sector of the Black Sea, and 8 are found for the first time in continental water bodies of Ukraine, one of which is new to science. Significant changes in the systematic composition of dinoflagellates in this period are due to both new findings and the appearance of new taxonomic combinations, which significantly expanded their generic spectrum. The most diverse orders remained: Peridiniales (118 species), which is a third of all species, Gymnodiniales (80 or 22%), and Gonyaulacales (60 or 16.4%). Among them, the most species-rich genera are Gymnodinium (41), Protoperidinium (41), Tripos (15) and Dinophysis (25) of the order Dinophysiales, the vast majority of which live in the Black Sea. A feature of the zonal distribution of dinoflagellate species on the territory of Ukraine is an increase in diversity in the southeastern direction, from the Ukrainian forest to the Black Sea. More than half of the species (54.4%) and the genera (56.6%) were noted only within one physical-geographic zone or sea. In particular, 174 (47%) species and 41 (41.8%) genera were found only in the seas. Since dinoflagellates are mainly marine algae, the greatest diversity and unique species composition is characteristic of the Black Sea, where almost 77% of all species and genera live. In desalinated Azov there were significantly less of them (21% of species and 25% of genera). In the Steppe zone of Ukraine, which has a wide range of water types, the highest diversity of dinoflagellates was observed among all terrestrial zones: 39.6% of species and 57% of genera known in Ukraine. According to ecological features, the flora of dinoflagellates was dominated by marine and breckish-marine forms (63.5%), were 2.5 times more than freshwater and breckish-reshwater forms (26.5%). A significant share was made up of species with a wide amplitude of adaptation (6.3%). Reservoirs with different degrees of myneralization, which include estuaries and myneralized reservoirs, as well as contact zones of fresh and sea waters (river mouths), had representatives of marine and brackish water complexes that are absent in other types of continental reservoirs. Estuaries ranked second after seas in terms of species richness (36.3% of species and 57% of genera) with a predominance of marine and brackish water species (58.5%). In general, 1.4 times fewer species were found in continental water bodies than in marine water areas. Lakes (22.4%) and ponds (21.6%) were in first place among continental bodies of water (with the exception of estuaries) in terms of species diversity, followed by rivers (16.4%) and swamps (15.8%), in which, of course, predominated freshwater species. There are 34 species that are widespread in Ukraine, 8 – are eurytopeans. T he composition of luminous species remained unchanged (36), and 25 are known as the causative agents of water "blooming", and 27 are toxic. Part of the species (63 or 17%) found mainly in the Black Sea are known from one reference, of which 40 species were identified more than 50 years ago, so their presence in the waters of Ukraine at the present time requires additional research. The taxonomic status of 8 species and one form has not yet been determined, so in the future the systematic composition of dinoflagellates of Ukraine will change thanks to the use of molecular phylogenetic methods.

Scientific justification of spatial distribution and mapping of anomalous manifestations of white hydrogen – energy raw material of the XXI century

The research studied the pressing problem of the fuel and energy strategy of the XXI century. For the first time, there was shown the diversity of the authors approach to theoretical and applied problems of hydrogen energy.General issues of fundamental and applied aspects of hydrogen origin were covered.The study provides the results of scientific developments on hydrogen mapping performed within the framework of scientific and practical exploratory and geo-ecological research on more than 200 hydrocarbon objects both on land (including mining fields) and in marine water areas. Prognostic and search system criteria were substantiated, with hydrogen being used for the first time as a component of the complex of methodical solutions in the search practice.The study emphasizes the decisive role of Ukraine in the competition for primacy in scientific developments. For the first time in world practice, the implementation of global projects for the extraction and production of white hydrogen was substantiated.The technology was tested on numerous hydrocarbon deposits, water resources and mine workings and therefore has all the prospects for the effective application in the search and extraction of hydrogen.At the same time, a database of hydrogen values obtained by performing surface methods using the technology of structural-thermo-atmosphere-geochemical research (STAGD) was created.For the first time, a map of promising oil and gas-bearing objects and industrial concentrations for the production of white hydrogen was developed on the fragment “Structural-tectonic map of the Dnipro-Donetsk basin” on a 1:200,000 scale, 2010.

ГЕЛІЄНОСНІСТЬ НАДР УКРАЇНИ

HELIUM CAPACITY OF THE SUBSOILS OF UKRAINE Purpose. Study of distribution of helium content in hydrocarbon deposits of deposits of Ukraine and their spatial location in oil and gas basins of Ukraine. Methodology. The work used: data from directories on the composition of gases in the fields of Ukraine, MapInfo programs for constructing SQL queries and displaying the results on maps.. Results. According to the directories, a database of deposits of hydrocarbon deposits of Ukraine with helium content in each deposit was created. Spatial mapping of the database of deposits to hydrocarbon deposits has been carried out. Special studies were conducted on the helium content in various types of hydrocarbon deposits. The spatial distribution of the deposits in which helium was determined was studied and their ranking by helium concentration was performed. It was established that the content of helium in the deposits is decreasing in the East-West-South oil and gas basins of Ukraine, and in marine water areas, helium in the deposits of hydrocarbon deposits has not been established. Scientific novelty. For the first time, maps with a ranking of helium content in deposits of Ukraine are given. The number of helium-containing deposits on the territory of Ukraine was analyzed. The prospects of the oil and gas bearing basins of Ukraine for the search for helium-containing deposits have been determined. Practical significance. The established features make it possible to zone the territory of oil and gas-bearing basins according to helium capacity. The main questions for the continuation of scientific and research studies have been determined. Key words: helium, hydrocarbon deposits, deposits, oil and gas basins, database.

Study of Intensive Anthropogenic Impacts of Submerged Wastewater Discharges on Marine Water Areas Using Satellite Imagery

This paper focuses on a detailed analysis of coastal waters under the conditions of the intense anthropogenic impacts of submerged wastewater discharges, using optical and radar satellite images. The features of the intense anthropogenic impacts on the coastal waters of the northern part of the Black Sea were studied, based on the processing and analysis of systematized archival satellite and sea truth data (2015–2021). Techniques based on the formation and analysis of the spatial (2-dimensional) spectra of optical and radar satellite images, normalized radar cross-section (NRCS), and the normalized spectral index are proposed. It is convincingly shown that these techniques make it possible to register and interpret the changes in the spatial structure of wind waves, as well as the changes in the optical spectral characteristics caused by submerged wastewater discharge due to the complex hydrodynamic and hydro-optical impact. A comprehensive analysis of the results of the processing of the heterogeneous satellite and sea truth data was carried out using a geographic information system. It was found that surface disturbances caused by anthropogenic impacts due to submerged wastewater discharges were detected by local “quasi-monochromatic” spectral maxima caused by the generation of short-period internal waves (wavelengths from ~30 m to ~165 m). These maxima can be registered by high-resolution optical and radar imagery. NRCS anomalies (2–4 dB contrasts), due to the surfactant films, floating jets, and turbulence related to wastewater discharge, are registered and described, as are the changes in the spectral radiance distributions in the blue and green bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The salinity effect and sedimentary types for the fauna distribution during the Holocene in Southern Iraq

In the present study, abundance and distribution of fauna in the sub surface sediments of the eight stations, Abo Flos, Ras Al-Besha, Khor Al-Umaya, Khor Shitana, Umm Qaser, Khor Al-Zubair, Kutaiban and Al-Faw were investigated. The stations selected for the present study were located at the southern region of Mesopotamia plain in Iraq. A reconnaissance survey in the study area showed the distribution of many marine species in the coastal areas (Khor Shitana, Umm Qaser, Khor Al-Zubair and Al-Faw). They were affected by the marine water areas with few effects of tidal flat and current waves. The affinities of the studied species are coming from the Indian Ocean towards the Red sea and the Arabian Gulf. The salinity and texture of sediment are the main factors that control the ecology and distribution of recent fauna. The soil texture for eight stations are sandy silt, clayey silt, silt, sandy silt and mud respectively.

Склад і розподіл макрофітобентосу біля берегів півострова Тарханкут (Чорне море, Крим)

The data on the composition and distribution of macrophytobenthos of marine and lagoon water areas of the Black Sea coastal zone in the west of the Tarkhankut Peninsula in the summer season are presented. It is shown that the occurrence and general characteristics of the vegetation cover are determined by the type of substrate. In the sea (where hydrological conditions are relatively homogeneous), the ratio of ecological-floristic groups and the species composition change with distance from the coast and along with it, depending on the depth and geomorphological features of coastal zone fragments. In the lagoon, the ratio of such groups changes along the complex gradient of environmental factors, formed by the groundwater runoff of fresh and marine waters. Within the surveyed area, 91 species of macrophytes were registered: Tracheophyta – 1 species (1.1%), Chlorophyta – 23 (25.3%), Ochrophyta (Phaeophyceae) – 21 (23.1%), and Rhodophyta – 46 (50.5%). Of these, 87 species were recorded in the sea (including 44 in the pseudolittoral zone and 81 – in the sublittoral zone). The macrophytobenthos has a pronounced marine oligosaprobic character. Short-vegetation Rhodophyta dominate by the number of species, and perennial Phaeophyceae dominate by biomass, reaching 1 kg∙m-2 in the pseudolittoral and almost 7 kg∙m-2 in the sublittoral. In the lagoon, 18 species of macrophytes were registered (4 exclusively in the lagoon). Mesosaprobic short-vegetation Rhodophyta dominate by the number of species; marine and brackish-water macrophytes are equally represented. Polysaprobic perennial Tracheophyta, which belong to the marine group, dominate by biomass, which is ranging from 0.04 to 1.2 kg∙m-2. It was found that at the time of the research, the macrophytobenthos of the surveyed area was characterized by high productivity, high species, and coenotic diversity. There were taxa and biotopes, which are subject to special protection under regional and international programs. In general, the nature of the vegetation, the composition of the flora and the ratio of the main ecological-floristic indicators corresponded to those indicated for the Tarkhankut-Sevastopol hydrobotanical region of the Black Sea. Considering the sozological value, the aquatic component of the territorial-aquatic complex was recommended for conservation and inclusion in the ecological networks (incl. the Emerald Network). The increased anthropogenic pressure and the threat of the coastal zone transformation actualize the problem of its conservation as one of the key reserves of the floristic and biotopic diversity of coastal-marine areas in the Northern Black Sea region.

Using machine learning to reveal spatiotemporal complexity and driving forces of water quality changes in Hong Kong marine water

A self-organizing map (SOM), which is an unsupervised neural network, is used to explore the spatiotemporal variability of water quality in Hong Kong marine water areas based on 31 years of monitoring data (1986–2016). In this study, three types of SOMs, referred to as s-v, s-t and t-s SOM, respectively, are applied to the multivariate marine water quality data, and principal component analysis (PCA) is used to help the clustering of SOM neurons and component planes. The major findings revealed by the spatiotemporal SOM analyses include the following: a) Hong Kong marine water areas can be classified into five regions with distinctive water quality characteristics over the long term, b) the spatiotemporal variations in chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and NO3− are greatly affected by ocean currents and nutrients from Pearl River discharge, c) marine water quality is significantly affected by water control projects, e.g., the Hong Kong Harbor Area Treatment Scheme (HATS), and d) nitrogen (N) is the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth in winter, west and south of the Hong Kong marine regions, while phosphorus (P) is the limiting nutrient in summer, owing to the massive discharge of the Pearl River that contain NO3−. Furthermore, the severe pollution in Deep Bay with high levels of Chl-a, nutrients and fecal coliform (FC) deserves immediate attention from the governments. The results of this study prove that combined spatiotemporal SOM analyses provide a powerful tool to identify spatiotemporal patterns in water quality data and to reveal the driving forces behind water quality changes. This study presents the first attempt to apply SOMs to water quality analysis at both spatial and temporal domains.

Bioindication of the ecological state (health) of coastal waters based on the use of automatic bioelectronic systems

The paper presents the data obtained in the study of the health of the ecosystems in a number of recreational areas of the Black Sea and the Eastern Gulf of Finland. Prompt assessment of the health of the ecosystems was carried out by testing the health of adult bivalve mollusks inhabiting them, using the functional load method based on the analysis of their heart rate measured by a fiber-optic bioelectronic system. The goal of the study is to test the innovative bioindication technology developed earlier by the authors on the basis of the above-mentioned method in the regional programs for environmental monitoring of the ecosystems of coastal marine and freshwater recreational water areas (using the example of a number of water areas of Sevastopol, as well as several freshwater areas of the Kurortniy District of St. Petersburg. It has been established that the functional state of mollusks may serve as an indicator of excessive pollution of coastal waters by the objects that discharge insufficiently treated wastewater from their local treatment facilities, including household wastewater. The technology applied in this study for the assessment of functional state of local species of molluscs may be effectively used to solve the problems of early diagnostics of alterations in the health status of coastal aquatic ecosystems and contribute to ensuring the ecological safety of recreational water areas, serving as an infobase for the development of science-based environmental management decisions. Taking into account a high expressiveness and easy-to-use technology applied in the study (which does not require expertise for its practical implementation), this technology may be considered as the best available technology for biomonitoring the water quality of recreational waters in Russia.

The method of radiation control of water areas deep parts and bottom sediments

The article substantiates the need to control the underwater water area and bottom sediments in marine water areas, lakes and rivers. Especially in cases where hazardous facilities are located next to them (nuclear power plants, production using radioactive components, storage facilities, etc.). For various reasons, small radioactive releases occur from these facilities. The radioactive substances fall into the water and are deposited in bottom sediments. Gradually, the expositional irradiation dose in the bottom sediment increases. Sea, lake or river inhabitants begin to get sick. It is extremely difficult to establish a high level of radiation in the bottom sediment by measuring the exposure dose over the water surface. The bottom sediments may be washed ashore during water movement or various cyclones. Further, then are dispersed by wind. This can lead to radioactive damage to people, animals and territory. The methodology for the radioactive state research of the water areas deep parts and bottom sediments using an autonomous deep-sea apparatus is presented. The apparatus is equipped with sensors for measuring the expositional irradiation dose, a video camera for monitoring the bottom, a depth sensor and an echo probe to determine its coordinates under water. The using an autonomous apparatus allows to determine the presence of radioactive contamination in bottom sediments and determine the configuration of their location. This allows to plan and effectively carry out work on the cleaning of rivers, lakes and coastal zones of the seas from radioactive bottom sediments.

Methods of variational data assimilation with application to problems of hydrothermodynamics of marine water areas

AbstractA series of problems related to the class of inverse problems of ocean hydrothermodynamics and problems of variational data assimilation are formulated in the present paper. We propose methods for solving the problems studied here and present results of numerical experiments.

ОПТИМИЗАЦИЯ СЕТИ ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО МОНИТОРИНГА БЕЛОГО МОРЯ

The order of the environmental monitoring stations is very important for marine water areas that characterized by high indentation of the coastline, a significant number of islands and shallows. This article proposes a methodology in order to reduce the number of monitoring stations based on zoning of the water area followed by optimization of the research vessels route. The optimization was performed using the well-known traveling salesman problem algorithm, which was improved for this case. It is shown that this approach allows to reduce the time of one survey by 15–20% on the example of monitoring the oxygen saturation in the White Sea waters.

The Application of Computational Fluid Dynamic Models for Research of Wastewater Marine Outfalls in Ice Cover Periods

The research of pollutant transfer process in ice-covered marine water areas has a great practical interest. The understanding of pollution transfer and transformation processes in freeze-up period is necessary in conditions of active development of the Arctic Coast and in design a long-term prediction of water quality. The detailed research of wastewater transfer in ice-covered marine water areas in Russia factually not been produced despite the fact, that in practice all type of coastal outfalls realized in the Far Eastern seas, which freeze-up period during from 4 to 6 months.The submitted research shows the results of field studies of wastewater outfalls of Vladivostok city. The field studies results was compared with results of wastewater transfer calculations, making by engineering methods and results of simulation, produced by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) models which implemented in the Ansys Fluent application software package. As a result of a comparison of the field study data and calculation results, was found that the official recomendations for calculating wastewater dilution give a significant error in calculating wastewater dilution in case of discharged into ice-covered marine water areas. A positive result was obtained for application of CFD models for research of marine outfalls in periods of water freezing.

A revision of macrophytobenthos of the “Lebyazh’i Ostrova” Nature Reserve (Black Sea)

A revision of the marine macrophytes flora of the Crimean Nature Reserve branch “Lebyazh’i ostrova” (“Swan Islands”) was carried out. The flora includes 97 species (hereinafter - including infraspecific taxa): Chlorophyta - 30, Ochrophyta - 11, Rhodophyta - 47, Tracheophyta - 7, Charophyta - 2; taxonomic structure: 8 classes, 22 orders, 31 families, 51 genera. The macrophyte flora has an oligosaprobic nature; short vegetation species dominate in terms of vegetation period duration, but perennial species have a fairly high proportion too. Among halobility groups, marine and brackish-water species prevail. Among phytogeographic groups (combined into two complexes) a warm-water complex dominates, with a high contribution of cosmopolitan species. In general, the ecological and floristic indicators of macrophytobenthos are close to those established for the Egorlytsko-Tendrovsko-Dzharylgachsko-Perekopsky hydro-botanical region of the Black Sea. The rare fraction of flora (taking into account regional, national and international nature conservation documents) includes 27 species. Within protected marine and lagoon water areas, biotopes under the special protection of the EU Habitats Directive are located (Council Directive 92/43/EEC); the nature reserve is a structural element of the Emerald Network and is designated as Wetlands of International Importance.