ABSTRACT

The Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea comprise a semi-enclosed intercontinental Marine System (MBMS), bordered by the Eurasian and African continents. Its total marine surface is circa 3 × 10⁶ km², while its drainage basin exceeds 7 × 10⁶ km²; the latter includes the watersheds of 39 large (>10⁴ km²) river systems, which correspond to about 83% of its total area. The MBMS includes four basins, that is, Western, Central, Eastern Mediterranean (WMED, CMED, EMED) and Black Sea (BLS), which are subsequently divided into 11 marine regions. Thus, the WMED includes the Alboran (ALB), the West MED (WEST) and the Tyrrhenian (TYR); the CMED consists of the Adriatic (ADR), the Ionian (ION) and the Centric MED (CEN); the EMED includes the Levantine (LEV), the Aegean (AEG) and the Marmara (MAR) and the BLS except of the Black Sea (BLA) includes the Azov Sea (AZOV). The present work aims to: (i) describe geographically the MBMS marine regions and their boundaries according to International Hydrographic Office and the common practice for environmental studies; (ii) provide and compare key-morphometric characteristics of all marine regions and their catchment areas and (iii) examine the possibility of a better separation of the existing marine regions.

摘要

地中海和黑海组成了一个半封闭的洲际海洋系统（MBMS），与欧亚大陆和非洲大陆接壤。其海洋总面积约为3 × 10 ⁶  km ²，流域面积超过7 × 10 ⁶  km ²；后者包括 39 个大型流域（>10 ⁴  km ²) 河流系统，约占其总面积的 83%。MBMS包括4个盆地，即西地中海、中地中海、东地中海（WMED、CMED、EMED）和黑海（BLS），随后又划分为11个海区。因此，WMED 包括 Alboran (ALB)、West MED (WEST) 和 Tyrrhenian (TYR)；CMED 由亚得里亚海 (ADR)、爱奥尼亚 (ION) 和中心 MED (CEN) 组成；EMED 包括黎凡特 (LEV)、爱琴海 (AEG) 和马尔马拉 (MAR)，除黑海 (BLA) 外的 BLS 包括亚速海 (AZOV)。目前的工作旨在： (i) 根据国际水文局和环境研究的普遍做法，从地理上描述 MBMS 海洋区域及其边界；