Macrophytobenthos from the Romanian black sea coast-an overview of the studies and actual state

Abstract

The unique nature of the Black Sea, (stated as “unicum hydrobiologicum” by N.M. Knipovich) refers not only to its physico-chemical conditions, but also to its biodiversity. Several decades ago, under the influence of different events that occurred, the Black Sea ecosystem, and the Romanian coastal area, were affected. Under the influence of pollution and eutrophication, the state of all living communities from both qualitative and quantitative point of view, has changed. A number of observations that took place in the last years, confirmed the qualitative decline (fewer species), and the near disappearance of perennial species (brown and red algae) and as a consequence, the disappearance of associated or epiphytic species, and the uniformity of algal belts occur. The research provides data obtained from the study of the macrophytobenthos from the Romanian littoral, both in northern and southern sector, where the macroalgae were collected from various types of hard substratum, several times a year, in both cold and warm seasons. In each sample, species were identified, and representative individuals were kept for the herbarium collection. The ecological factors influence the development of macrophytes along the Romanian shore, so they must be mentioned in all these studies. The research shows that because of the newly created ecological conditions, the actual algal communities consist of a smaller number of species than previously reported, and most of them are opportunistic species with a short life cycle and rapid growth, like species from green algae Enteromorpha, Ulva and Cladophora genera, and Ceramiun from red algae, that persisted and proliferated under these environmental conditions displaying considerable biomass.