Open day, Laboratory of Marine Ecology, Sozopol

The Laboratory of Marine Ecology is based in the town of Sozopol just on the coast of the Black Sea. The main activities of the laboratory include the elaboration of prognoses for the state of the marine coastal ecosystems in the Bourgas Bay on the basis of long-term monitoring program, investigations on their structure and functioning and the impact of the oil pollution on them.

The First Open Doors Day of the Laboratory of Marine Ecology (LME) was organized on 3nd September 2010. The aim of the event was to promote the infrastructure activities of the WETLANET Project at the LME and its recent scientific achievements. The Open Doors Day targeted both scientific and broader non-scientific community.

Invited guests of the event were the Chairman of Community Council, Municipality of Sozopol Mrs K. Germanova, the Chief Secretary at Ministry of Environment and Waters of the Republic of Bulgaria Mrs K. Deneva, the founder of the Laboratory of Marine Ecology, Sozopol Prof. Georgi Detchev, the Director of the Regional Inspectorate of Ministry of Environment and Waters, Burgas Mr B. Georgiev, the Director, Dr. Daniela Petrova, and colleagues of the Institute of Fish Resources, Varna, colleagues from the Institute of Oceanology – BAS, Varna, Technical Universities in Burgas and Varna, the Chief of Eurointegradion Department at Municipality of Sozopol Mrs Petia Chapevova, staff of the Department of Ecology, Municipality of Sozopol, the Coordinator of  Life+ project: Life for Burgas Lakes Mr Kosnstantin Gospodinov (Bulgarian Society for Bird Protection), the Regional Coordinator of Foundation Biodiversity, Burgas Ms Radostina Tsenova, the PR of Life+ project Life for Burgas Lakes Mariana Vulcheva, permanent staff of the Laboratory and colleagues from IBER-BAS.

Official Opening of the event took place at the Community Council Hall, Municipality of Sozopol. Short presentations about the recent achievements of the WETLANET Project was presented by the coordinator of the project Professor Boyko Georgiev. The official programme included also presentations about history of LME by prof. G. Detchev, the investigations carried out in the period 1980-2010 and their impact on the ecology of the region by Dr G. Hiebaum, the contribution of site Sozopol as a part of Bulgarian LTER network by Dr S. Bratanova. The recent studies on the bacterial communities in PAHs polluted coastal marine sediments, the role of marine macroalgae as indicators for the ecological state of coastal marine ecosystems and an example of ecosystem approach in studying and management of fish resources in the Black Sea were presented by Dr N. Christova, PhD student D. Berov and Dr G. Daskalov.

In the afternoon, the programme continued at the renewed building of the Laboratory of Marine Ecology. The new equipment and analytical facilities of the laboratory were presented. Finally a trip to a typical monitoring site in the coastal zone of Sozopol was done using the laboratory research vessel.

Photos from the event are presented here.