75-Year dynamics of the Black Sea phytoplankton in association with eutrophication and climate change.

Based on a database containing species records obtained from 1948 to 2022 and a hydrochemical database, long-term changes in the biomass and taxonomic structure of phytoplankton in the deep-sea basin of the Black Sea were analysed in the stratified period from April to October. Over 75 years, a significant increase in concentration of nitrate, a weak increase in phosphate and a strong decrease in dissolved silicate were observed in the nutricline. The biomass of diatoms and total phytoplankton increased several times during the peak of eutrophication in 1991-1993, then decreased by the 2000s and has again shown an increasing trend in the last 15 years.

Effect of invasive ctenophores Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata on low trophic webs of the Black Sea ecosystem.

The study focuses on the impact of life excretion and mucus released by the "biological pollutants" invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and its predator Beroe ovata on the marine environment and lower trophic levels of the Black Sea ecosystem (bacteria, pico-phytoplankton, nano-autotrophic/heterotrophic flagellates, micro-phytoplankton, chlorophyll a, primary production (PP), micro-zooplankton). The chemical and biological variables were analysed in two sets of lab experiments with natural communities from mesotrophic (Gelendzhik) and eutrophic (Varna) coastal waters. While both species altered the chemical properties of experimental media, exerting structural and functional changes in the low food-web biological compartments, the results showed a stronger effect of B.

Drivers of phytoplankton blooms in the northeastern Black Sea.

In order to understand of the processes controlling phytoplankton successions in the NE Black Sea, long-term data series are needed. We compiled 15 years (2002-2017) of measurements from which the existence emerges of a tight link between phytoplankton species dominance and nutrients concentrations. The latter is strongly influenced by wind direction.

Increasing contribution of coccolithophorids to the phytoplankton in the northeastern Black Sea.

During 2005-2011, 418 phytoplankton samples were collected in Novorossiysk and Tuapse ports and near the resort cities of Anapa and Gelendzhik in the northeastern Black Sea. The maximal values of both abundance and biomass of phytoplankton related to high nutrient concentration, probably due to anthropogenic load, were observed at Novorossiysk (5.82×10cells/l, 1.