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International Journal of Marine Science 2013, Vol.3, No.43, 352-360
http://ijms.sophiapublisher.com
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level-rise, a change of wind patterns, geological
processes, etc. Among main anthropogenic causes of
coastline erosion and biodiversity loss we can separate
the direct and indirect impacts. Direct ones occur
when a shoreline and a catchment area are physically
altered: 1. a shoreline is replaced with a seawall for
different purposes including shoreline armoring -
“hard” structures such as seawalls, angular rock,
jetties, etc, built to protect beaches and shorelines
from erosion; 2. a wetland is filled in; 3. a sand
extraction from beaches; 4. a reduced river inflow due
a dam construction and increasing water use for
agriculture and industry; 5. mining; 6. damping; etc.
Indirect impacts: 1. de-vegetation of a shoreline and
catchment areas, 2. introduction of alien species, 3.
bottom trawling, 4. recreation activities, 5. pollution, etc.
It is very difficult to separate the various impacts from
the different causes in terms of coastal erosion and
biodiversity loss. These interplay in all cases, on every
spatial and temporal scale.
To improve a current inadequate management of
different human activities in a coastal zone is an
immediate task for humans. We can’t reach this task
without a clear understanding of interplay of the
different factors and processes.
Among the most pressing problems of the Black Sea,
as well as other seas, coastline erosion and the
changes in system of biodiversity are critical (UNDP,
1997; 2007). The parameter called «Development of
the coastline (DCL)» is used for estimation of the
biological productivity of natural water bodies
(Zaitsev, 2006):
DCL = L / 2√πS,
where L – length of coastline, S –area of water body, π
= 3.14
DCL reflects high contribution of a shoreline zone
into total productivity of a sea. Relatively narrow
coastal areas of the sea are the most productive areas;
so if their contribution to the productivity of the sea is
high, then total productivity of a sea would also be
high. However, to use the DCL index it is necessary to
take into account the “scale”. The DCL for a whole
sea differs from DCLs of different parts of the coastal
zone. For lagoons and bays it is usually much higher
as for the whole sea (our unpublished data). In the
most cases the anthropogenic changes in a coastline
area lead to decreasing of DCL on different scales and
as a result to a decline of total productivity of marine
areas.
The shoreline may be considered as a leverage point –
a place within a complex system where a small shift in
one thing can produce big changes in everything
(Meadows, 1999) – where a small shift in a shoreline
area can produce big changes in the whole sea. The
shoreline area may also be considered as a
“bellwether” of the sea that is it tends to create,
influence or set trends for the whole sea. This is why
we need to pay special attention to processes and
trends in the shoreline zone.
Using results of our long-term observations and
studies in different parts of the Crimean (The Crimea
is the largest peninsula of the Black Sea) shoreline
(published and unpublished) as well as data from the
literature, we attempt to deepen our understanding of
interactions between biodiversity loss and shoreline
erosion.
1.2 The Black Sea and its coastline
The Black Sea is located in south-eastern Europe. It is
bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is
ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the
Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas and various straits.
According to the degree of isolation from the
ocean, the seas may be classified as enclosed or
semi-enclosed. The Black Sea forms in an east-west
trending elliptical depression which lies between
Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and
Ukraine. The sea waters separate eastern Europe and
western Asia. The International Hydrographic
Organization (1953) defines the limits of the Black
Sea as follows: “On the Southwest. The Northeastern
limit of the Sea of Marmara [A line joining Cape
Rumili with Cape Anatoli (41°13'N)] in the Kerch
Strait. A line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia
(45°02'N)”. The Black Sea is the world’s largest
meromictic basin where the deep waters have a very
limited mixing with the upper layers of oxygenated
waters. As a result, over 90% of the volume of the
Black Sea is anoxic waters (Zaitsev, 2006). The sea
area is 436,400 km
2
. Twenty two countries are entirely
or partly located on the catchment area of the Black
Sea, and more than 170 million humans live within