Settlement dynamics of the Isabelline Wheatear Oenanthe isabellina (Temm.) on the Crimean Peninsula

The expansion of Oenanthe isabellina in Ukraine began at the end of 1950s - early 1960s. The Isabelline Wheatear settled along the coast of the Sea of Azov from east to west and appeared on the Crimean Peninsula later than in the regions located to the west of it. Since the late 1960s, this species has been nesting near the mouth of the Dnipro River which located in the west of the Crimean Peninsula. The nesting of Oenanthe isabellina was found in the northern part of the Crimean Peninsula in 1973. In the mid-1980s, the Isabelline Wheatear inhabited the northwestern coast of Crimea and appeared far in the east - on the Kerch Peninsula. In the southeastern part of the peninsula the range of the Wheatear reached the Black Sea coast by the end of the 1980s, when the species nesting was found near Feodosia. In the southeastern part of Crimea, the Isabelline Wheatear continued to settle along the Black Sea coast in a westerly direction in the 1990s: its nesting was found near Sudak. In the central Crimea, the species range reached the northern foothills of the Crimean Mountains at this time. The species expansion to the south slowed down by the beginning of the 2000s. In the western Crimea, the southernmost settlement of the Isabelline Wheatear was found near Evpatoria. In the northern foothills of the Crimean Mountains (Central Crimea), the range border has not changed. There were no significant changes in the southeastern Crimea during this period - in the 2000s, O. isabellina nested near Sudak as in the 1990s. The species expansion almost stopped in Crimea in the 2010s. The settling of the Isabelline Wheatear in the steppe regions of the southwestern Crimea did not occur, possibly due to the absence of little ground squirrel settlements, whose burrows birds usually use for nesting. The border of the O. isabellina range has moved southward on about 100 km for three decades - from the beginning of the 1970s to the beginning of the 2000s -, i.e. the settlement speed of the species in Crimea was about 3 km per year.

Research of the Crimean Peninsula wind power resources based on hourly data from ERA5 reanalysis

The climatic assessment of the wind resources of the Crimean Peninsula is carried out using the hourly ERA5 data for the 40-year period 1980-2019. It is established that average wind speed in central Crimea is 2–6 m/s. It is lower than on the western coast (4–8 m/s) and on the territory of the Kerch Peninsula (5–9 m/s). It is found that the Kerch Peninsula is the most favorable area for wind generation. The frequency of wind speed for rated output of wind turbines in that region is 15–17% at 10 m and 37–38% at 100 m. The frequency of ineffective wind conditions for wind generation, when the wind speed is insufficient to start a wind turbine, does not exceed 17-22% at 10 m and 11-12% at 100 m. In central Crimea and the Southern Coast of Crimea, the frequency of ineffective wind conditions at a height of 10 m exceeds 40% per year. Also, as a result of the analysis of the diurnal variation, it is found that at 10 m, in June the wind speed in the daytime is higher by average 21% and in December by 6%. The diurnal variation is not noticeably pronounced at a height of 10 m. The revealed seasonal features of the change in wind speed at heights of 10 and 100 m characterize its increase by 31–35% in the winter season compared to the summer. Some local specificity of the Crimea relief, especially mountain ranges, is not taken into account in the work, which is due to insufficient spatial resolution of the reanalysis.

New microfossils data about the Santonian-Campanian boundary in the Alan-Kyr section (Central Crimea)

The article presents the results of the determinations of foraminifera and nannoplankton from the section of Upper Cretaceous deposits Alan-Kyr (Central part of Crimea Mountains). Interpretation of these data to gether with the palinological ans paleomagnethic materials obtained earlier in this section allows to justify the age of deposits. In the lower part of the section planktonic foraminifera assemblages are correlated with the Satonian part of the Dicarinella asymetrica Zone. The benthic foraminiferal assemblages also show on the Santonian interval and allow it to be divided in more detail. On the nannoplankton data it was possible to identify fossils of the transition Zone CC17, corresponding to Upper Santonian–Lower Campanian. Within these deposits is the base of a probable magnetic chron analogue C 33r, which is proposed to be used as a primary feature to define the lower boundary of the Campanian.

New sedimentological, bio-magnetostratigraphic and palynologic data on the Upper Cretaceous of “Alan-Kyr” (Central Crimea)

In this article there are the results of sedimentological, palynological and paleomagnetic studies of upper Cretaceous in Alan-Kyr section (Central Crimea). The nomenclature of rocks was specified, and their deep-water genesis was justified. According to palynologic data, the age of sediments is estimated as late Campanian, in the lower part of the section palynomorphs were not found. In the lower part of the section there was established a reverse polarity magnetozone — probable analogue of C33r magnetic chron, which base should be desirable to use as a primary attribute to determine the lower border of Campanian stage in the section according to Wolfring’s recommendation [Wolfgring et al., 2018]. The received data found a significant divergence microfaunistic dating of the section, conducted before [Bragina et al., 2016].

The CoOccurence of Hyoplagus and Lepus (Leporidae, Lagomorpha) in the early pleistocene of Crimea

New fossils of Leporidae from the Lower Pleistocene deposits of the Taurida Cave in the central Crimea (Belogorsk district, Zuya village) are referred to Hypolagus brachygnathus (Kormos, 1930) and Lepus sp. Cooccurrence of Hypolagus and Lepus in the Early Pleistocene of Crimea is significant in terms of the question of the first appearance of Lepus in Europe, as well as the hypothesis of the competition with hares as one of the possible causes of extinction of Hypolagus.

Metal Jewellery in the Context of a Sanctuary: Interpretation Potential

Metal jewellery used as votive offerings is discovered at the “barbarian” mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (the Crimea) and dating from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. Most of these items were probably part of female costume known from funerary contexts in the Central Crimea, which differ both regarding their location (in the Crimean Foothills and on the South-Coast), as well as the specific features of the burial rite (“cremation” vs. “inhumation”). A small part of the jewellery is characteristic only for the cemeteries in the South-Coast area containing burials with remains of cremation. An analysis of the cultural environment, in which the jewellery items deposited in the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary of the Roman period were produced and used, suggests that its worshippers came from communities living on the southern macro-slope of the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains and practised cremation of the dead. Apparently, these people appeared in the Graeco-Roman narrative tradition and local epigraphic documents of the Roman period as “Tauri”, “Scythian-Tauri”, and “Tauro-Scythians” inhabiting “Taurica”. They are presumed to have appeared in the Crimean Mountains in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC (migrating from areas with archaeological cultures influenced by the La Tène culture?) and to have maintained their cultural identity until the beginning of the 5th century AD.

New data on the Ocean Anoxic Event 2 near the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary in the Biyuk-Karasu river sequence (Central part of Mountain Crimea)

In the carbonate sections organic-rich clay interlayers on the Cenomanian and Turonian boundary were indicated. They were formed as a result of the periodic formation of anoxic conditions in the basins. A section of the Cenomanian and Turonian boudary sediments at the river Biyuk-Karasu (Central Crimea) was investigated. Dark organic-rich intercalations with light colored carbonate clays formed during the period of ocean anoxic event (OAE2) were identified. These interlayers contain large amount of type II organic matter and are oil source strata. The mineral composition is similar, but intervals differ in the organic matter concentration.