MOISEEV D.V. Murmansk Marine Biological Institute RAS

Enormous biological and mineral natural resources are concentrated on the Barents Sea shelf.

Their excavation inevitably leads to the worsening and changes of a large marine ecosystem. To solve the tasks of the sustainable nature exploitation and preservation of the sea to the future generations complex investigation of all elements of the ecosystem which is possible only on the basis of a powerful information base uniting multi-sided geological-geomorphological, hydrochemical, hydrobiological and ichthyological data is vitally important .Processing, presentation and analysis of these data is more convenient to fulfill applying geoinformation technologies.

Murmansk Marine Biological Institute carries out regularly ecological monitoring of the different Barents Sea shelf areas. While carrying out monitoring at its different stages sampling, processing and analysis of heterogenous geoecological information takes place. Presentation, processing and analysis are impossible to carry out without geoinformation technologies. For this purpose in 1999 we started and continue up to now the work for creating geoinformation system for the work with heterogenous seoecological information on the Barents Sea.

In this geoinformation system we consider the Barents Sea as a large marine ecosystem (Large Marine..., 2003) consisting of the blocs: environment- biota, anthropogenic impact. The fourth bloc are meta-which is a standard part of any geoinformation system.

After processing and testing of data entering the corresponding thematic blocs presentation of spatially connected information on the cartographic basis takes place. Subsequently, follows conduct of spatial analysis operations after which we obtain the so-called information products of the first level. Their analysis leads to the creation of the information-analytical products including reports and publications on the ecological monitoring on the Barents Sea shelf.

Let us give the application example of geoinformation technologies when ecological monitoring on the Barents Sea shelf In 2001 MMBI earned out engineering environmental site investigations in the Pechora and the Barents Sea in the area of the projected routes of submarine pipe-line and construction site of oil pumping terminal near the peninsula Varandey. Application of geoinformation system started already at the stage of planning the monitoring stations location. Stations were placed at the equal distance from each other by the section along the projected routes of submarine pipe-lines. After the expedition investigations, data sampling and testing of the primary information all the data on different thematic blocs were presented on the cartographic basis as thematic maps illustrating different components of the ecosystem. For the creation of such maps depending on the type of data different ways of spatial analysis were applied.

At the next stage specialists of the Institute used these thematic maps at the data analysis on different ecosystem components and subsequent writing of correspondent chapters of technical report.

Thus, geoinfomiation system described is adapted and is widely used for the processing, presentation and analysis of geoecological information on the Barents Sea. It is tested not only at the conduct of the ecological monitoring of different parts of the Barents Sea shelf but it is widely used at the fulfillment of fundamental investigations. The system will be developed and improved.

References
Large Marine Ecosystems of the World. (Electronic resource) / URI Natural Resources, NOAA-NMFS, URI Marine Affairs, URI Resource Economics, URI Anthropology. Electronic data. USA, Regime of accessibility: https://www.edc.uri.edn/lme. free. Title from the screen in English.

ARCTIC SHELF OIL AND GAS CONFERENCE 2004