Wind Regime and Wave Fetch as Factors for Seagrass Habitat Distribution: A Case Study form Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

• Main Author: Elitsa V. Hineva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Union of Scientists in Bulgaria 2020-06-01
• Series: Ecologia Balkanica
• Subjects: seagrass; wave exposure; wind regime; wave fetch
• Online Access: http://web.uni-plovdiv.bg/mollov/EB/2020_vol12_iss1/123-135_eb.20108.pdf

The paper presents a study on the relative importance of wind regime and wave fetch for limitation of seagrass spatial distribution in Burgas Bay, the Black Sea. In Burgas Bay the relative importance of both factors is obviously changing from northern to southern coasts. The seagrass meadows facing north-northeast direction have two times smaller integral fetch and are three times more often wave impacted than those facing south-southeast. Along the southern coast the fetch (maximum and number of azimuths) is more important to allow seagrass presence, while in front of the northern coast – it is the wind speed recurrence. In the first scenario the habitat is expected to be less frequently but more strongly affected by the wave action, contrary to the second scenario, where the reversed effect is supposed.