An outstanding representative of the Dnepropetrovsk hydrobiological school of technogenic transformed freshwater ecosystem, the founder of the theory and practice of enrichment of reservoirs with new food for fish, professsor P. F. Zhuravel (1901–1977)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the description of the pages of the life of a prominent Ukrainian scientist who made highly significant contributions to the formation of the theoretical basis for the enrichment of natural and artificial reservoirs with food resources in the steppe zone of Ukraine. Petro Oleksiyovych Zhuravel, Doctor of Biological Sciences, not only made a great contribution to the development of the Dnepropetrovsk hydrobiological school studies, but was also a very sensitive and decent man. His students and followers remember him with great warmth and emphasize how easy it was to communicate with Petro Oleksiyovych; he was always attentive to other people’s problems, and was reputed to have an unusual and interesting sense of humor. During the 1950s, under the leadership of Professor Zhuravel, these studies were developed into a broad multi-year program of work on the study of biology, ecology, and adaptation of Caspian fauna introduced into estuaries of Southern Ukraine and Crimea. The introduction of representatives of the Estuarine-Caspian fauna was carried out in the Dnieper Reservoir, in the reservoirs of Kryvyi Rig (Karachunivske and Kresivske Reservoirs, Ingulets river, Saksagan river), in the Milk estuary of the Sea of Azov, in Vasylkiv Reservoir on the Vovchy River, and in the area of the future Kakhovka Reservoir. In connection with the acclimatization measures in the Dnieper Reservoir, new representatives of the fauna of the Estuary-Caspian complex have appeared, which have become feed components for many industrial fish species. A special merit of Professor Zhuravel was the introduction and acclimatization of forage invertebrates and fish in the reservoirs of southern Ukraine and the Crimea; acclimatization to the Chornorichensk (Sevastopol) Reservoir of the Crimea, employing biofilters, fish, and forage organisms from the estuarine fauna to improve w Petro Oleksiyovych ater quality. In the 1970s, in order to intensify the processes of biological self-purification of water in the Chornorichensk Reservoir in the Crimea, the acclimatization work started by Professor Zhuravel was continued. These works had a real positive economic effect and are widely known. In the acclimatization center (Moscow) the work of Dnepropetrovsk hydrobiologists such as Professor Zhuravel has always been highly valued. Following the example of the Dnipropetrovsk Research Institute of Hydrobiology, work on the enrichment of fish feed was carried out in other regions: in the Baltic Sea, Lake Balkhash, lakes in Hungary, etc. The results of research by Professor PA Zhuravel are summarized in his work, “Acclimatization of forage Estuarine-Caspian fauna in reservoirs and lakes of the USSR” and others.