As a result of 30-year integrated studies, the Russian scientists have significantly succeeded in understanding the mechanisms determining the Black Sea ecosystem. Today they can, with a certain degree of probability, forecast changes in the life of this basin. The obtained results in many respects explain the peculiarities of operation of the ecosystems of other internal seas and the World Ocean as a whole and form the basis for efficient use of its resources. Deputy Director of P. Shirshov RAS Institute of Oceanology Mikhail Flint, Dr. Sc. (Biol.), told our correspondent Yevgeniya Sidorova about this. - Mikhail Vladimirovich, what problems do researchers of the Black Sea face today? - One of the main problems is to learn to reliably distinguish between the consequences of man's activity and those of climatic changes. This is fundamentally important for understanding both life of other internal seas and the World Ocean as a whole. Against the background of lasting global climatic trends in the sea ecosystems there are 10 - 20-year fluctuations the information about which has practical importance for the living generation that is obliged to adapt its activity to them. Now periodic fluctuations have definitely become stronger*. We try to link the effects of general atmospheric circulation and changes in regional climate, understand how the latter influence the state of sea ecosystems, their productivity and biological diversity. However, we have not succeeded in finding out the initial cause of "climatic reshuffle" yet. * See: Yu. Israel, "Threat of Climatic Catastrophe?", Science in Russia, No. 4, 2004. - Ed. стр. 13 ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF WARM WINTER - How does the Black Sea ecosystem react to climatic surprises? - In order to have an idea about the reaction of the ecosystem, one has to understand well what processes take place in it in winter. And that's why. In the Black Sea there is breaking of ... Читать далее