Features of the Oceanological Values Fields in the Sivash Bay (The Sea of Azov)

Abstract

The study is aimed at revealing the structural regularities and variability of the fields of temperature, salinity, the colored dissolved organic matter and total suspended matter concentrations, and also the factors that form them in the Sivash Bay. Besides, the results obtained are to be compared with the already known features of the fields of the values under investigation which are typical of the Azov-Black Sea coastal zone; and the response in the considered fields to the North Crimean Canal damming is to be assessed. Methods and Results. Based on the data of 8 expeditions carried out by M arine Hydrophysical Institute in 2013-2016, the structural regularities and variability of the fields of temperature, salinity, the colored dissolved organic matter and total suspended matter concentrations, and the factors that form the fields of these values in the Sivash Bay were revealed. The quantitative indicators of changes in the fields of the considered values, which arose after the North Crimean Canal was dammed, are represented. Conclusions. In the region under study, a number of constantly acting factors that determine formation of special, not typical of the coastal area features of the oceanological values fields are identified, namely: the influence of the Azov Sea and the North Crimean Canal waters, the rivers inflowing to the water area of the Sivash western coast, the isolated lakes, the swampy shallow bays and the isolated relatively deep parts of the coastline. Three years after the North Crimean Canal was dammed, in the northwestern Sivash salinity increased by 20 PSU. The opinion that Sivash is not a typical sea bay, but a connected with the Azov Sea reservoir with the signs of a salt swamp is confirmed.