levels, etc.); we can assume that large-scale ecologic anomalies are 

 occurring in the ocean. This aspect has not as yet received its 

 deserved attention from researchers, although its importance and urgency 

 for the entire problem of pollution are obvious. In this respect, 

 processes of biologic productivity in the ocean and, particularly, of 

 the formation of organic matter under conditions of chronic pollution of 

 the euphotic zone, should be given particular attention. The problem 

 here is not only related to the fundamental ecologic significance of 

 primary production as the material and energetic basis of life in marine 

 bodies of water, but also the increased vulnerability (sensitivity) of 

 photosynthesis and the community structure of single-celled algae to 

 disruptions in the chemical composition of the environment in which they 

 live. The clearest and best known examples of ecologic anomalies of 

 this type are cases of eutrophication (or, more precisely, hyper- 

 eutrophication) of sea water and, particularly, fresh water, as a result 

 of the entry of large quantities of biogens from the land into the 

 water. 



Less known and not so well studied are examples of inhibition of 

 growth, development and photosynthesis of marine phytoplankton as a 

 result of the content of various toxicants or their combinations in sea 

 water. Table 3 presents summarized ecologic-toxicologic information on 

 the effects of toxicants on cultures and natural communities of marine 

 phytoplankton. As we compare the orders of magnitude presented in Table 

 3 (greater accuracy is impossible, since we are speaking of general 

 features of a complex and dynamic system), it is easy to see that in 

 spite of the great variability, the levels of threshold toxicity of the 

 substances in question for phytoplankton overlap the range of the 

 content of these same substances in the neritic zone, and for some 

 toxicants (petroleum products, polychlorinated biphenyls)--the oceanic 

 zone as well. In other words, the presently existing and repeatedly 

 recorded concentrations of the most common man-made products in sea 

 water are capable of altering the rates of formation of organic matter 

 in the World Ocean. 



The extrapolation of experimental data to natural ecosystems which 

 lies at the basis of this conclusion is, naturally, based on certain 

 assumptions. However, if we consider that some of the data in question 

 were obtained under conditions in situ and in long-term experiments, and 

 that there is direct proof of disruptions of the production and 

 structural characteristics of marine phytoplankton in anthropogenically 

 changed environments (Clutter, 1970; Kiryushina et al . , 1975; 

 Oradovskii, 1975; Patin, Ibragim, 1975), the idea of large-scale 

 inhibition of photosynthesis, at least in the most polluted regions of 

 the neritic zone of the World Ocean is, in our opinion, well founded. 

 The question of the ecologic results of a large-scale inhibition of 

 photosynthesis in the World Ocean is worthy of special study. For 

 example, a large-scale decrease in primary production by 10%, which 

 hardly seems excessive to us, given today's level of pollution, should 

 result in a corresponding decrease in the rate of production at other 

 trophic levels, right up to the nekton, where these losses would amount 

 to tens of millions of tons, including several millions of tons of 

 commercial fish, each year. 



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