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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]
Apart from possible atmospheric effects, many deeper-dwelling marine organisms could not adapt to an ocean where oxygen penetrated only the surface layers. [ citation needed ] An economically significant consequence of oceanic anoxic events is the fact that the prevailing conditions in so many Mesozoic oceans has helped produce most of the ...
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.
By volume, the ocean contains more than 99 percent of the Earth's liquid water. [10] [11] [12] The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out it would be more appropriate to refer to the planet Earth as the planet Sea or the planet Ocean. [13] [14] Marine habitats can be broadly divided into pelagic and demersal habitats.
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 ]
Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean.On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximately 35 grams (1.2 oz) of dissolved salts (predominantly sodium (Na +
Using the observed temperatures and salinities, in the modern ocean, is about 10 whilst at the LGM it is estimated to have been closer to 25. The modern thermohaline circulation is thus more controlled by density contrasts due to thermal differences, whereas during the LGM the oceans were more than twice as sensitive to differences in salinity ...