Black Sea Oceanography

edited by

Erol izdar
Institute of Marine Science and Technology,
Dokuz Eylül University,
Izmir, Turkey

and

James W. Murray
School of Oceanography,
University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Springer Science+Business Media, B.V.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on
Black S e a Oceanography
Qes.me-lzmir, Turkey,
October 23-27, 1989

ISBN 978-94-010-5152-1 ISBN 978-94-011-2608-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-2608-3

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved

© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer A c a d e m i c Publishers in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner.
 83

hO a +d€+~(X (11)
A = --.,....-.,.---
l-h+d€

(12)

Integration of this equation yields;

o
O=_I__ 0 +Ax ) expl-l(l+BX)
+Ax + (OO-_I__ tiT] (13)
l+Bx l+Bx

In which 00 = initial isotopic composition and 0 is the 0 or H isotopic composition at time

1. With increasing time 0 tends towards a steady value os' For the Black Sea area it has
been assumed that atmospheric water vapor is equilibrium with local precipitation with an
o isotopic composition of -8.5 % 0. The temperature and relative humidity of the Black Sea
varies greatly between the various regions. For example, temperatures in Odessa in the
USSR ranges between -2.8°C in winter to 22.1°C in summer. Relative humidity ranges
between 86 and 63 % over the same period (Lydolph, 1977). In contrast temperatures in
Istanbul are considerably warmer and relative humidity higher throughout the year. For the
purposes of this study I have averaged data from Istanbul, Samsun and Odessa between 1984
and 1988. These data give an average yearly temperature of l1.2°C (a =7.65) and a relative
humidity of 77.8%(a =4.5).
The value Os can also be estimated as a function of varying amounts of input or output.
For example a value of .3.30% 0 for Box 1 has been estimated assuming zero input of
Mediterranean water (Fig.5).

3.1. Long Term Changes.

It has been shown by previous work that during the Pleistocene, when sea level was
considerably lower than at the present time, there was no input of Mediterranean water into
the Black Sea. The Black Sea was therefore probably freshwater or slightly saline (Ross and
Degens, 1974). During subsequent salinity changes, the 0 and H isotopic composition of
the Black Sea also changed approaching its present day composition. The time needed to
replace the water in the Black Sea has been estimated by Boudreau and Leblond (1989) to