Turbulent diffusion in the near-bottom boundary layer of the Black Sea shelf zone

In the Black Sea shelf zone, direct measurements of the vertical profiles of currents and hydrological parameters in the bottom boundary layer (BBL) using OLT-D type profilers have been used to calculate the vertical diffusion coefficient Kz in the near-bottom region. Various known models were applied for this purpose. The results of the calculations have shown that satisfactorily consistent estimates of Kz in the range from several cm2/s to 15–20 cm2/s. At large Kz there is greater variation among the estimates given by the different models.