Abstract
The Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea occupy some three million square kilometres of marine space. They are supposed to be relics of the ancient Tethys ocean, whose creation dates back to 225 million years ago (Triassic period, Mesozoic era), and whose compression is thought to have initiated 38 million years ago (Oligocene period, Cenozoic era) because of the colliding shift of African and Euro-Asian plates. In light of the common origin of these seas, it would be appropriate to consider them together and to propose, at least as for study purposes, the concept of the Large Mediterranean Marine Region (LMMR), meant as a unique enclosed marine space, linked to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar (5 km long, 13 m minimum width, 500 m average depth), and to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean by the Suez Canal (161 km long, 90–100 m surface width, 16.1 m maximum depth). This region would include three distinct sub-regions:
-
the Mediterranean Sea embracing the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean seas, plus the Sicilian Channel and the water interposed between the Sardinian and Spanish coasts;
-
the marine interface between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea embracing the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits;
-
the Black Sea area together with the Sea of Azov, and the connecting corridor consisting of the Kerchensky Strait. The Mediterranean Sea comprises some 84.4 per cent of the surface and the 87 per cent of the water volume of the LMMR.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Couper, A.D. (ed.),The Times Atlas of the Oceans. The Times Books, London, 1983.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, 1991.
Vallega A., Fundamentals of Integrated Coastal Management. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1999.
Flemming N.C., Predictions of Relative Coastal Sea-Level Change in the Mediterranean Based on Archaeological, Historical and Tide-Gauge Data. In Climatic Change and the Mediterranean, vol. 1, eds L. Jeftic, L.D. Milliman and G. Sestini, Arnold, London, 1992, pp. 247–81.
Jelgersma S. and Sestini G., Implications of a Future Rise in Sea-Level on the Coastal Lowlands of the Mediterranean. In Climatic Change and the Mediterranean, vol. 1, eds L. Jeftic, L.D. Milliman and G. Sestini, Arnold, London, 1992, pp. 282–303.
Milliman J.D., Sea-level Response to Climatic Change and Tectonics in the Mediterranean Sea. In Climatic Change and the Mediterranean, vol. 1, eds L. Jeftic, L.D. Milliman and G. Sestini, Arnold, London, 1992, pp. 45–57.
Pirazzoli P.A., Sea-level changes in the Mediterranean. In Sea-level changes, ed. M.J. Tooley & I. Shennan, Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 1987, pp. 152–81.
Nicholls R.J. and Hoozemans F.M.J., Vulnerability to sea-level rise with reference to the Mediterranean region. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Mediterranean Coastal Environment MEDCOAST’95, ed. E. Õzhan, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, vol. 2, 1995, pp. 1199–213.
Kaplin P.A., Porotov A.V., Selivanov A.O., and Yesin N.V., The North Black Sea and the Sea of Azov coasts under a possible greenhouse-induced global sea-level rise. In Coastlines of the Black Sea, ed. R. Kos’yan, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1993, pp. 316–54.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, WG II Third Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, Vulnerability, 2001; http://www.meto.gov.uk/sec5/CR_div/ipcc/wg 1 /WGII-SPM.pd.
Shuisky Y.D., The general characteristic of the Black Sea coasts. In Coastlines of the Black Sea, ed. R. Kos’yan, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1993, pp. 25–49.
Jeftic L., Keckes S., and G. Sestini G. (eds), Climatic Change and the Mediterranean, vol. 1. Arnold, London, 1992.
Jeftic L., Keckes S., and Pernetta J.C., Climatic Change and the Mediterranean, vol. 2. London, Arnold, 1996.
Sapozhnikov V.V., Biohydrochemical Causes of the Changes of Black Sea Ecosystem and its present Condition. GeoJournal, 27, 2, 1992, 149–58. «When increasing a degree of eutrophication of the basin, the intensification of heterotrophic processes is expressed first in the growth of heretotrophic organic biomass, then hytoplankton and finally detritus. Such a prevalence of the heterotrophic processes over the autotrophic ones is caused, as a rule, by the flow of a large amount of allochthonic organic substance to their basin and, as possible, due to the small sizes of bacteria and accordingly the high correlation of the surface of these microorganisms to their volume compared with higher life».
United Nations Environment Programme. State of the Mediterranean Environment. MAP Technical Reports Series No. 28. UNEP, Athens, 1989.
Kos’yan R.D., Magoon O.T., Man on the Black Sea coast. In Coastlines of the Black Sea, ed. R. Kos’yan R., American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1993, pp. 1–13.
Mandych A.F., Shaporenko S.I., Influence of the Coastal Economic Activities upon the Coastal Waters of the Black Sea. GeoJournal, 27, 2, 1992, 199–210.
Keondjian V.P., Kudin A.M., and Borisov A.S., Practical Ecology of Sea Regions—Concepts and Implementation. Geo Journal, 27, 2, 1992, 159–68.
R. Kos’yan (ed), Coastlines of the Black Sea. Series of Coastlines of the World, series ed. O.T. Magoon, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1993.
Aibulatov N.A., The history of the Black Sea coastal zone studies. In Coastlines of the Black Sea, ed. R. Kos’yan, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1993, pp. 14–24.
Vigarié A., L’U.R.S.S. et sa participation à l’économie des océans. In Marine Marchande 1976, Journal de la Marine Marchande, Paris, 1976, pp. 107–18.
Tietze W., The Future Role of European Marginal Seas: The Pontus. GeoJournal, 27, 2, 1992, 228.
Prescott J.V.R. (1985), The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World. Methuen, London & New York.
Scovazzi T., Management regimes and responsibility for international straits: with special reference to the Mediterranean Straits. Marine Policy, 19, 2, 1995, 137–52.
UN, Office for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Law of the Sea Bulletin.
Gastescu P., The Danube Delta: Geographical Characteristics and Ecological Recovery. GeoJournal, 29, 1, 1993, 57–67.
Drodzov V.A., Glezer O.B., Nefedova T.G., and Shabdurasulov I.V., Ecological and Geographical Characteristics of the Coastal Zone of the Black Sea. GeoJournal, 27, 2, 1992, 169–78.
Vallega A., Regional level implementation of Chapter 17: the UNEP approach to the Mediterranean. Ocean and Coastal Management, 29, 1–3, 1995, 251–78.
Vallega A, Geographical coverage and effectiveness of the UNEP Convention on the Mediterranean. Ocean and Coastal Management, 31, 2–3, 1996, 199–218.
Pavasovic A., Integrated Coastal Management in the Mediterranean: Present State, Problems and Future. In Regional seas towards sustainable development, eds. S. Belfiore, M.G. Lucia, and E. Pesaro, Franco Angeli, Milano, 1996, 119–33.
http://www.unep.org/unep/program/natres/water/regseas .
Vallega A., Integrated coastal area management in the framework of the UNEP Regional Seas Programme: The lesson from the Mediterranean. In Ocean Yearbook, vol. 13, eds E. Mann Borgese, A. Chircop, M. McConnell, and J. R. Morgan, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1998, pp. 245–78.
Sorensen J., Integrated Coastal Zone Management: Lessons from the Black Sea and the Gulf. In Regional seas towards sustainable development, eds. S. Belfiore, M.G. Lucia, and E. Pesaro, Franco Angeli, Milano, 1996, pp. 134–56.
Meel, D., The Black Sea in Crisis: A Need for Concerted International Action. Ambio, 21, 4, 1992, 278– 86.
These investigations may be found in 12, 13 .
It has been provided by a special issue of GeoJournal (Black Sea environment 1992, 27, 2). Specifically concerned with physical features, contributions on the individual countries facing the Black Sea may be found in 19.
A framework of investigations carried out till the late 1980s on the physical context was provided by Aibulatov (1993). 20 .
To calculate the LCP and CHP, only a part of the land surface and population of Russia, Spain and France has been considered. These estimates were tentative. The land surface and population of Turkey were divided into two equal parts, supposing that these are roughly equally gravitating on the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Quoted by S onrensen (1996: 138–9) 34. See also M ee (1992).35.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vallega, A. (2004). The Mediterranean and Black Seas. In: Smith, H.D. (eds) The Oceans: Key Issues in Marine Affairs. The GeoJournal Library, vol 78. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2780-2_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2780-2_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6716-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2780-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive