The department was established as a structural unit of Marine Hydrophysical Institute in 1991. From the moment the department was created until November 2017, it was headed by Dr.Sci. (Physics) academician of RAS and NAS of Ukraine, Vitaliy A. Ivanov.
The main goal of the department is to carry out comprehensive interdisciplinary research in the field of oceanology, marine hydrophysics, geoecology of the shelf, offshore and coastal zones of the seas and oceans in order to obtain new scientific knowledge, increase the efficiency of use, preservation and protection of marine environment, create the scientific basis for environmental safety and rational nature management.
The main scientific directions:
The department has 28 employees in the following positions:
Head of Department: Ph.D. (Tech.), Alexander S. Kuznetsov.
During the work in the offshore and coastal zones, elements of the technology for monitoring the dynamics of water off the southern coast of Crimea were improved. It was found that the average long-term coastal current near Kikineiz Cape, the Southern Coast of Crimea, with the general cyclonic circulation of water relative to the deep sea has an additional cyclonic current vector reversal of with depth due to local spatial variability of the bottom topography.
A new method for assessing the variability of coastal waters vertical hydrological structure according to the monitoring of currents by an antenna complex of Euler vector-averaging measurements of currents was proposed. Based on an array of long-term field data on coastal current variability, the possibility of solving the inverse problem with the aim of reconstructing the vertical density stratification temporal variability of coastal waters is substantiated.
The geological and lithological conditions of the northern side of Sevastopol and the Heracles Peninsula western part are generalized in connection with the landslide hazard problem. It is shown that up to date the stability regime of landslides on the northern side of Sevastopol is determined by abrasion in the “tongue” part and constant loads as a result of landslides in the warheads. A survey of the Uchkuevka landslide, activated on May 8, 2018 in the Radiogorka district at the northern side of Sevastopol, was completed. The survey was carried out using a quadrocopter in the same coordinates as the one performed on October 12, 2017, which made it possible to quantify the scale of the phenomenon and the damage it caused.
The results of mapping all landslide hazardous areas of the Sevastopol region are uploaded to a specialized interactive information system with access from the Internet. Based on the results of numerical calculations using INM RAS model on a regular grid, data arrays were obtained and analyzed to assess the spatial-temporal characteristics of seiche oscillations driven using the initial condition for a level surface. The spatial-temporal characteristics of seiche oscillations in the range up to one day are obtained, their comparison with the results of previous studies is carried out.
Numerical calculations were performed according to the INM RAS model on a grid with a pole shifted to the Crimea region. Based on the analysis of numerical experiments, a deepening of the cold intermediate layer in the model was revealed.
The analysis of currents and level fluctuations arising under effect of natural seiche oscillations in the Kerch Strait is carried out.
In order to assess the ecological state of the water area and bottom sediments of the Sevastopol Bay, the zones of increased content of metals such as strontium, arsenic, chromium, nickel, lead, vanadium and iron were identified in 2006 and 2016. Such zones were identified in the Yuzhnaya Bay and in the central parts of the Sevastopol Bay.
Using the hydrothermodynamic unit of the numerical non-stationary three-dimensional MESSA model, numerical experiments were carried out to calculate the variability of temperature and salinity fields in the Sevastopol Bay from January 1 to March 31 of the calculation year. The performed numerical experiments provided realistic reproduction of temperature and salinity fields of the Sevastopol Bay during the hydrological winter.
The characteristic of the existing observing system at the mouths of the Chernaya, Belbek and Kacha rivers is given and the Program for Integrated Research of the Chernaya River Sea Estuary in the zone of interaction of river and sea water was tested.
For the first time, assessments of the processes of suspended matter transport, water exchange in the zone of river waters and desalinated ones of the Sevastopol Bay interaction, as well as the penetration of salt water, zones of shore erosion and sediment accumulation were performed and the propagation range of halocline, which has, on average, a length of 0.18 km in the Chernaya River estuary section, was determined.
Based on the updated quantitative data on the volumes of emissions and the concentration of pollutants in stationary sources of municipal wastewater, the ecological state of the coastal waters near the beaches of Sevastopol in the area of Heracles Peninsula, Balaklava, Northern side of Sevastopol and Laspi was assessed.
Using the contemporary methods of mathematical modeling, new information on the dynamics of river plumes of the large Danube River and the distribution of anthropogenic wastewater discharges in the Southern Coast of Crimea region was obtained. Using a mathematical model of passive impurity transfer in the Black Sea, calculations for identifying the possible location of suspended matter sources for the Kerch Strait region by integrating related tasks and constructing the effect functions of the initial impurity concentration fields were carried out. The modeling of storm changes in the relief of coastal zone and particle size distribution of sediments in the area of the Bogaily Lake (Western Crimea) bay-bar was carried out.
The variability of morphometric characteristics of the Sivash Bay regions after the closure of the North Crimean Canal in 2014 on the basis of the data from the digitization of the Landsat series satellite images is analyzed. The first preliminary version of the Sivash Bay environmental monitoring system under the conditions of Crimea entering the socio-legal field of the Russian Federation, taking into account the current borders of the wetland of international importance “East Sivash”, is proposed. The results of the work on the Sivash Bay were reported at a meeting of the commission of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Crimea on November 21, 2018. A scientific rationale for the need to restore the work of “Chongarsky Bridge” marine hydro-meteorologic station (MHS) of Roskomhydromet in the waters of the Sivash Bay, which has been functioning for 80 years, but stopped working in 2014, is given. The Ministry received approval and support in this matter.
Employees of the department participate in research work of the State Program for the Development of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation until 2020 on the topic 0827-2018-0004 “Complex interdisciplinary studies of oceanologic processes that determine the functioning and evolution of ecosystems of the Black and Azov Seas coastal zones” (code “Coastal Research” ), as well as RFBR projects.
The results of the department’s work are presented by employees at international and all-Russian conferences, published in high-ranking journals included in the citation databases Web of Science and Scopus.
Shelf Hydrophysics Department
FSBSI FRC MHI
2, Kapitanskaya St.
299011, Sevastopol
Russian Federation