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From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [28] The ocean's surface acts like a skin between the atmosphere above and the water below, and harbours an ecosystem unique to this environment.
Salt marshes can be generally divided into the high marsh, low marsh, and the upland border. The low marsh is closer to the ocean, with it being flooded at nearly every tide except low tide. [53] The high marsh is located between the low marsh and the upland border and it usually only flooded when higher than usual tides are present. [53]
The mass of the oceans is approximately 1.35 × 10 18 metric tons, or about 1/4400 of the total mass of the Earth. The oceans cover an area of 3.618 × 10 8 km 2 with a mean depth of 3,682 m, resulting in an estimated volume of 1.332 × 10 9 km 3. [20]
About 3.5% of the weight of seawater comes from dissolved salts. But just how did the salt get in there? Why is the ocean salty? Lets dive in.
The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of salt per kilogram of seawater (3.5% salt). [21] Most of the salt in the ocean comes from the weathering and erosion of rocks on land. [22] Some salts are released from volcanic activity or extracted from cool igneous rocks. [23] The oceans are also a reservoir of dissolved ...
Brine rejection is a process that occurs when salty water freezes. The salts do not fit in the crystal structure of water ice, so the salt is expelled. Since the oceans are salty, this process is important in nature. Salt rejected by the forming sea ice drains into the surrounding seawater, creating saltier, denser brine.
Although the amount of salt in the ocean remains relatively constant within the scale of millions of years, various factors affect the salinity of a body of water. [27] Evaporation and by-product of ice formation (known as "brine rejection") increase salinity, whereas precipitation , sea ice melt, and runoff from land reduce it. [ 27 ]
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