CLIMATIC CHANGES AND SALINITY OF THE SEA OF AZOV FOR 100 YEARS.

In the modern period in the Sea of Azov region air temperature is increasing, especially during the winter, some warming of waters of the Sea of Azov and mitigation of its ice conditions are observed. Along with that, decrease of wind speed and a slight contrast increase of the climate region (continentality) are observed. In recent years, beginning of the next period of the Sea of Azov salinity increasing is marked, which is probably connected with reduction of annual precipitation in the region. A brief historical review of the hydrological regime studying of the Sea of Azov and existing approaches to annual salinity evaluation are presented. Database including 40947 oceanographic stations with salinity measurements for the period of 1913-2014 was used to calculate the average annual sea salinity. Differences in obtained values of average salinity from those previously published were revealed due to differences in methodological approaches and amount of observation data. The most significant differences are observed for the Taganrog Bay, which is associated with high variability of its hydrological regime. Anomalies of average annual salinity for the period of 1922- 2014 are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]