Comprehensive Assessment of Negative Factors Affecting the Black Sea Shallow Water in the Danube Area

摘要

Major factors that have negative influence on the coast ecosystem of the Black Sea are assessed in this paper. Anthropogenic eutrophication caused by additional input of nutrients via the river runoff and (mostly via the Danube runoff) has been the main problem for the ecosystem during the last 30 years. Climate changes in Europe in the 2000s became an additional source of negative impact upon the shelf ecosystem. Both these factors are now changing the hydrophysical conditions of the Northwestern part of the Black Sea. In addition to these factors, we observe now a direct human impact upon the shelf ecosystem by construction of deep shipping routes in the Danube Delta towards the Black Sea. In the paper, variants of these routes in the Ukrainian part of the Delta are assessed as well as the consequences of their construction.