MODULAR SYSTEM MEANT FOR EPIBIONTIC BIOFILTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE BLACK SEA

Abstract

EU policy in the field of marine biodiversity, including protected areas, is developing in the context of global, regional, and European Union commitments. In this context, the ecosystem-based approach focuses on a management system that maintains the health of the ecosystem along with the proper use of the marine environment by humans, to the benefit of present and future generations. The natural marine epibiontic filter includes all living invertebrates attached to the stiff submersible substrate. Epibiontic organisms comprise all marine invertebrates that, during the juvenile stages, are fixed on hard natural supports (rock, submerged rocky platforms) and carry out their entire life cycle. The slow and insignificant recovery process of the natural biofilter in the coastal area of the Romanian Black Sea coast requires the elaboration of ecological methods meant to increase the populations of epibiontic organisms that constitute filters, able to accelerate the restoration of the marine environment in tourist areas on the coast. In order to improve the quality of the marine environment in coastal areas affected by anthropogenic impact, it is recommended to build epibiontic biofiltration barriers throughout the water column, including the affected sedimentary substrate. In this respect, a modular system was designed, created and experimented, which has the role of allowing the development of the epibiontic material.

Keywords

• ecosystem-based approach
• epibiontic organisms
• modular system
• experiment
• composite
• floating system