| Summary: | Study of natural and anthropogenic processes in the southern seas of Russia is a priority task of the Southern scientific center of Russian Academy of Sciences. Annually for 15 years, the Southern scientific center of RAS carried out sea expeditions in the south of Russia. The year of 2017 was marked as a 10-year anniversary of the first expedition of the R/V Deneb in the Azov and Black seas. During a five-year period from 2012 to 2016, 36 complex expeditions in the Azov and Black seas were carried out by R/V Deneb; the oceanographic database was enriched with the data of 3500 oceanological stations, more than 11,000 samplings were done at more than 900 complex hydrobiological stations. The expeditionary materials enlarged the oceanographic database of the Southern scientific center: the field and archival data permitted to assess long-term dynamics of organic matter and carbon, the Azov Sea transparency and salinity and to calculate the characteristics of small-scale variability of temperature, salinity, internal waves and level fluctuations in the Azov and Black seas. The research in the Black Sea provided extensive synchronous data which characterize current state of the most vulnerable psammophilic benthic communities at the depths of 2–20 m. The estuaries of small rivers at their junction with the sea were studied in details. The new data on distribution and quantitative characteristics of jelly-like-, phyto- and pico-plankton over the whole shelf area of the Russian sector of the Black Sea is obtained. The Black Sea population of newcomers – Holland crabs (Rhitropanopaeus harrisi tridentate) – living exclusively in the sea canyons with unstable salinity was studied. The metagenomic approaches applied to study the plankton communities in the Azov and Black seas, were used to obtain new data on diversity and structure of marine bacterial communities. The oceanological observation data on the environment conditions in the Azov and Black seas are annually directed to the Hydrographic department of the Black Sea Navy of Russian Federation where it is used in the field service.
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