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Education was an objective of NRDI GeoEcoMar since its foundation, in order to attract young students to research through organizing various scientific meetings, summer schools, coordinating Master and PhD theses, etc. As European Centre of Excellence for Environmental and Geoecological Studies on River - Delta - Sea Systems in Europe - EuroGeoEcoCentre, during 2003-2006 the institute organized summer schools in the Danube Delta in order to train students from Romania and European countries in the sedimentology of terrestrial and marine systems. Since 2013, annual programs of education and internship for undergraduate students are run by the National Center for Monitoring and Warning on Marine Natural Hazards - Black Sea Security System - in Constanţa. Activities for schools and the general public started in 2010, with public conferences, temporary and travelling exhibitions, as well as various events. Such activities increased between 2016-2017, when a project dedicated to education and promotion of earth sciences was run by the institute. The educational program included educational activities for various types of target audience, activities of popularization and promotion of geological and paleontological sites in two Romanian geoparks, promotion of results accomplished by GeoEcoMar in earth sciences, ecology, marine biology, etc. The educational program developed was structured as education in schools, internship for students and geological literacy of the general public. For education in primary and secondary schools, ten lesson plans on earth sciences were elaborated, with associated hands-on activities. A 5 days field trip in Dobrogea was organized for undergraduate students, while various activities and events were proposed for the general public: public conferences, geological field trips, the Day of Open Doors at GeoEcoMar, Earth Science Week, the School Differently and workshops for children. Geological education is a necessity in Romania, especially as earth sciences do not have an adequate public presence and geological literacy of people is rather low. As geology is no longer part of the school curricula for almost 20 years, except some basic concepts included in the geography programs, education and promotion of earth sciences has to continue, which implies the existence of adequate financial and human resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results obtained in two projects of GeoEcoMar, which led from the study of extreme marine events and the inventory of marine geohazards to the creation of a real-time warning system for marine hazards in the Black Sea. Project Profet resulted in establishment of the main marine hazards that could trigger a tsunami-type event in the Black Sea, like earthquakes, active faults, landslides, gas hydrates, gas seeps and mud-volcanoes. Also, major tsunami-type events in the Black Sea were listed and described from various sources. Through project MARINEGEOHAZARD, the EUXINUS and GeoPontica networks have been established, which produce data for the National Data Centres in Constanța and Varna. The EUXINUS network is a complex automatic marine measurement system, consisting of 5 measuring instruments installed in key points of the Western Black Sea shelf. The main task of one of its main components, the Black Sea Security System, is to elaborate risk assessments and to send early-warning notifcations to authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment-associated pollutants are transported by rivers as suspended load and bed load under specific flow conditions. In particular conditions part of pollutants (e.g. metals) could be incorporated into the alluvial deposits, and over time, became a major source of the river contamination. The hydrology, the riverbed morphology and the characteristics and quality of river sediments of the Lower Danube have been studied yearly in the 2009 - 2013 period using different methodologies (single and multi-beam bathymetry, ADCP measurements of current velocity and suspended load, sediment sampling using grabs and corers, laboratory analyses). Yearly measurements and sampling have been carried out on more than 70 cross-sections on the Lower Danube course, between km 1072, where the river enters the Romanian territory, and the Black Sea. From each cross-section, one to three sediments samples were analysed for determining the sediment grain size, mineralogy and chemical composition using different laboratory methodologies, as X-ray fluorescence and AAS techniques for Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Ti, V and Zn. The obtained multiannual data allowed identifying the main anthropogenic pollution by heavy metals zones along the river. The Romanian tributaries of the Danube have been sampled and analysed separately for evaluating their role in the general environmental state of the region. The influence of the Danube River water, sediment and pollutants supply to the NW Black Sea has been also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the fluctuation pattern in Late Holocene microfaunal (i.e. foraminifera and ostracods) and nannofloral assemblages of two cores collected from the Romanian Black Sea shelf, at a water depth of 28 and 66 m, respectively. The lithology of the cores is mainly characterised by blackish muds, alternating with thin, centimetres-thick sand and coquina layers. The microfaunas are dominated by brackish foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages that are still common in the actual Black Sea communities, living nowadays at water salinity lower than 18 ‰. In the shallower water Site EF 08-01, the abundance ratio between Caspian and Mediterranean ostracods is 0.7, while in the deeper water Site BS 08-055, the abundance ratio between Caspian and Mediterranean ostracods is 0.01. These data argue for the dominance of Mediterranean ostracod fauna with lower abundance in shallower environments of the Black Sea and with a very high abundance in the deeper parts of the internal shelf, i.e., at a water depth of 66 m. Based on the calcareous nannoplankton fluctuation, four Nannofloral Intervals were identified, which indicate a gradual salinity increase of the surface waters during the deposition of the Late Holocene Shallow Unit. In the same interval, the benthic microfaunas (ostracods and foraminifers) argue for a more stable salinity environment in the two studied cores from the Black Sea inner shelf [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between the grain size composition TOC (total organic carbon) concentration was examined by linear and non-linear regression analysis of analytical data for more than 500 sediment samples from the NW Black Sea. A significant dependency of the TOC concentration on the percentages of clay and especially the <16 μm fraction (clay plus fine and very fine silt) was identified, the model best fitting the analytical data being exponential. Three groups of sediment samples were identified using the K-means clustering technique, the deep sea sediment samples being clearly singled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigations focused on two profiles from the Black Sea, placed in front of the Portiţa Mouth and in the south-eastern part of the Sahalin Island. Up to 40 m water depth, the samples from the Portiţa profile contain only reworked Mesozoic and Cenozoic calcareous nannoplankton taxa. In the same profile, the bloom of the calcareous nannoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi, together with abundant benthic foraminiferal taxa, were recorded in the first 11 cm of sediments, at below 40 m water depth. All the samples collected in the SE of Sahalin Island contain only Mesozoic and Cenozoic reworked calcareous nannoplankton taxa; no marine assemblages in situ were remarked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is based on grain size analyses as well as on the macroscopic lithologic description of a large number of samples collected from the bottom of the Danube. Unlike previous papers on sedimentology, which were limited to the textural characterisation of sediments from the various sectors of the Danube, this paper attempts a new approach of the sediment dynamics. The interpretation of histograms, of cumulative curves or of the Passega diagram is used in the attempt to explain the dynamic and genetic reasons for the presence of a particular type of sediment in locations characterised by different environmental energy conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]