Ocean Sci., 13, 465–482, 2017 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-13-465-2017 © Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Small river plumes off the northeastern coast of the Black Sea under average climatic and flooding discharge conditions Alexander Osadchiev1 and Evgeniya Korshenko2 1Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 2Zubov State Oceanographic Institute, Moscow, Russia Correspondence to: Alexander Osadchiev (
[email protected]) Received: 2 January 2017 – Discussion started: 6 February 2017 Revised: 17 May 2017 – Accepted: 18 May 2017 – Published: 15 June 2017 Abstract. This study focuses on the impact of discharges of 1 Introduction small rivers on the delivery and fate of fluvial water and sus- pended matter at the northeastern part of the Black Sea un- der different local precipitation conditions. Several dozens Continental discharge is one of the main sources of terrige- of mountainous rivers flow into the sea at the study region, nous sediments, nutrients, and anthropogenic pollution in and most of them, except for several of the largest, have little the sea and can significantly affect seabed morphology, wa- annual runoff and affect adjacent coastal waters to a limited ter quality, primary productivity, and fishery in coastal areas extent under average climatic conditions. However, the dis- (e.g., Emmet, 2006; Milliman et al., 2007; Zhou et al., 2008; charges of these small rivers are characterized by a quick re- Rabalais, 2010). Generally, the majority of fluvial runoff and sponse to precipitation events and can significantly increase the related discharge of its suspended and dissolved con- during and shortly after heavy rains, which are frequent in stituents on a regional scale are provided by the largest local the considered area.