Aspects on the History of Observations and Measurements in the Black Sea Coastal Zone, Rehabilitation Projects and Marine Modeling Issues

Over time, the content, scope and objectives of hydrological research in the Romanian Black Sea coastal area varied according to the state of society development, technology development and financial resources. Along with the activities of capitalizing on natural resources, water use, river and sea navigation, there have been demands for knowledge of the water regime and the interaction between the resource potential and the characteristics of the hydrological regime. As a result, hydrographic and hydrological research was started and developed in the Black Sea coastal zone. These researches developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, and then continued throughout this century and later in the twentieth century, with interruptions caused by the two world wars. Among the important activities that have taken place over time, there have been hydro-technical works. The design and elaboration of the projects of these works were based on the knowledge of the hydrographic and hydrological characteristics of the Black Sea coastal zone. This knowledge has evolved over time so that there is currently an important pool of data and information related to the hydrological, morphological, hydrochemical, hydrobiological characteristics of the water bodies mentioned. The paper presents briefly the most important moments of the history of the monitoring activity carried out over time in the Black Sea coastal zone, the types of coastal and transitional waters in Romania, coastal rehabilitation projects of the Black Sea, hydrological features, the structure of the marine complex model pom / ersem III) BREG / BSHELF.

Development of tools for ecological quality assessment in the Polish marine areas according to the Water Framework Directive. Part IV — preliminary assessment

A set of classification methods was developed for the Polish coastal and transitional waters regarding the biological quality elements — phytoplankton, macrophytes and macroinvertebrates as required by the EU Water Framework Directive. Mean summer chlorophyll-a and total summer biomass of phytoplankton were proposed as indicators in the phytoplankton assessment. Macrophytes were assessed by the Macrophyte Quality Assessment Index, including biomass and percent bottom coverage of the selected taxa. Macroinvertebrate assessment was based on a biotic index comprising abundance, dominance structure, taxonomical richness and species sensitivity/tolerance to eutrophication. A preliminary assessment of the ecological status revealed that the coastal and transitional waters failed to reach a ‘good’ ecological status.

Ecological Evaluation Index continuous formula (EEI-c) application: a step forward for functional groups, the formula and reference condition values

The Ecological Evaluation Index continuous formula (EEI-c) was designed to estimate the habitat- based ecological status of rocky coastal and sedimentary transitional waters using shallow benthic macrophyte communities as bioindicators. This study aimed to remedy the weaknesses of the currently used EEI methodology in: (1) ecological status groups (ESG), (2) the formula, and (3) reference condition values. A cluster analysis of twelve species traits was used to delineate ESGs. Two main clusters (ESG I, late-successional; ESG II, opportunistic) were identified that were hierarchically divided into three and two sub-clusters, respectively: ESG I comprised thick perennial (IA), thick plastic (IB) and shade-adapted plastic (IC) coastal water species, and angiosperm plastic (IA), thick plastic (IB) and shade-adapted plastic (IC) transitional water species. ESG II comprised fleshy opportunistic (IIB) and filamentous sheet-like opportunistic (IIA) species both in coastal and transitional waters. To avoid discrete jumps at the boundaries between predefined ecological categories, a hyperbolic model that approximates the index values and expresses the ecosystem status in continuous numbers was developed. Seventy-four quantitative and destructive samples of the upper infralittoralCystoseira crinita and coastal lagoonRuppia cirrhosa communities from tentative pristine to less impacted sites in Greece verified 10 as an ‘ideal’ EEI-c reference condition value.