European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

Data collected within the EMBLAS-II "EU-UNDP Project 'Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea' (EMBLAS-II)" (http://emblasproject.org/). EMBLAS-II is co-financed by the European Commission (EC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project implementation started on 1 April 2014 and ended on 31 May 2018, having the total duration of 50 months. The EMBLAS project is addressing the overall need for support in protection and restoring the environmental quality and sustainability of the Black Sea. The specific objectives are as follows: Improve availability and quality of Black Sea environmental data in line with the MSFD and Black Sea Strategic Action Plan (2009) needs; Improve partner countries' ability to perform marine environmental monitoring along MSFD principles, taking into account the Black Sea Diagnostic Report II recommendations on capacity building. The National Pilot Monitoring Studies (NPMS) and Joint Open Sea Survey (JOSS) Programme was developed within the framework of Project Activities. The JOSS UA - GE 2017 was performed in period 2017.08.26 to 2017.09.07 in the Black Sea waters (Transects Odessa - Batumi) onboard the R/V "Mare Nigrum" (Romania). 54 samples were obtained during JOSS-UA -GE 2017. Quantitative phytoplankton samples were collected by vertical series consisting from several sampling depths. The depths were chosen with an idea to collect samples from main hydrophysical layers. These layers were defined according to CTD-sounding which was fulfilled before the phytoplankton sampling at each station. Special attention was paid to fluorescence profile obtained simultaneously with the CTD-sounding. The samples were collected from the upper mixed layer, upper thermocline layer, and deep chlorophyll-a maximum layer. At several stations also samples from cold intermidiate layer, lower thermocline and near bottom layer were collected when the results of fluorescence sounding allowed to suppose the presence of phytoplankton at such depths. For collecting were used 5 L Niskis bottles, attached to CTD rosette system. The phytoplankton sample was collected at the depth of the fluorescent maximum. Sampling performed by A. Zotov (IMB NANU), M. Grandova (UkrSCES)