The The Formation and Development of the Dnipropetrovsk Academic Hydrobiological School (1930s — 1960s). Part 1

Abstract

The first part of the article presents a historical reconstruction of the formation and further development of the Dnipropetrovsk academic hydrobiological school, which initiated the study of technogenic transformation of freshwater ecosystems in the 1930s and 1960s. According to the chronological scheme of the school’s activities proposed by the author, this period includes its two earlier phases: the first phase (1927—1941) involved a complex hydrobiological study of the consequences of construction of the Dniproges and the processes of the formation of the first large reservoir on Dnipro river (the Dnipro Reservoir); the second phase (1943—1960) — developments and improvements of methods for hydrobiological study of technogenically transformed freshwater ecosystems. It is shown that the Dnipropetrovsk State Hydrobiological Station became the basis for building the team of Dnipropetrovsk hydrobiologists, with the leading role played by Prof. D.O. Svirenko as the organizer and the first director of the station, the founder of complex hydrobiological studies of the impact of the Dniproges on the natural water environment. Detailed information is given about the expeditionary activities of Dnipropetrovsk hydrobiologists led by Prof. D.O. Svirenko, which made it possible to prepare a description of the physico-chemical and biological features of the freshwater ecosystems of the former porous part of Dnipro river, transformed into the ecosystems of the newly created reservoir (Dnipro Reservoir), and laid the basis for the formation of a new direction of hydrobiology, hydrobiology of reservoirs. These studies of Dnipropetrovsk hydrobiologists became pioneering works of this kind in Ukraine and in the world, with Prof. D.O. Svirenko elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in 1934. Students and followers of Prof. D.O. Svirenko continued the research launched by him, with significantly improving the methods for exploring manmade and transformed freshwater ecosystems and expanding the geography and problems of research (formation of Kakhovsk and Dniprodzerhynsk reservoirs, water-accumulating reservoirs of Crimea, Donbass and Kryvbass).