9813509 Murray The principal investigator will convene an international workshop to evaluate the current state of knowledge of the extent and causal mechanisms of suboxia in the Black Sea. The Black Sea is undoubtedly among the most remarkable low- temperature geochemical environments on the Earth's surface, and there is growing recognition that is encompasses a pervasive and expanding mass of suboxic water whose chemistry, physics, and ecology is very poorly understood. This is all the more important politically and sociologically because the nations bordering on the Black Sea are economically bound to it through dependence on fisheries that would be adversely impacted by decreasing oxygen conditions. The principal investigator anticipates that the workshop would help guide international efforts to understand and perhaps control the suboxia phenomenon.
