The Black Sea is fed by a basin of more than 2 million km2, covering parts of 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Turkey. It receives the inflows of several major rivers, including the Danube, Don, Dnieper and Dniester. As an almost fully enclosed water body, the Black Sea is especially vulnerable to changes in the quantity and quality of inflows from these rivers. The Don and Dnieper, in particular, have been highly developed for irrigation and other purposes through a chain of reservoirs.
Increasing pollutant loads from these rivers – especially the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus – have led to algal blooms and the destruction of important nursery areas for fish. In addition, damming of the major rivers for navigation, flood control, water supply and, above all, for irrigation, has considerably altered the seasonal flow patterns of these rivers. The damming has also decreased the total inflow to the Black Sea, resulting in an increase in salinity...
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© 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Herschy, R.W. (1998). Black sea environment. In: Encyclopedia of Hydrology and Lakes. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4497-6_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4497-6_31
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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