Table of Contents
What affects the salinity of ocean water?
Evaporation of ocean water and formation of sea ice both increase the salinity of the ocean. However these “salinity raising” factors are continually counterbalanced by processes that decrease salinity such as the continuous input of fresh water from rivers, precipitation of rain and snow, and melting of ice.
What is the relationship between salinity and fresh water?
Salinity is simply the measure of dissolved salts in water. Salinity is usually expressed in parts per thousand (ppt) or ‰. Fresh water has a salinity of 0.5 ppt or less.
What happens to the salinity of ocean water as you go deeper into the ocean?
Typically, the salinity decreases from the surface ocean to deep waters is very small, from about 36 g/L (ppt) at the surface to 35 g/L (ppt) in the deep water, thus there is a very small density decrease with depth given a constant temperature. The salinity of seawater also affects it’s freezing point temperature.
What is salinity What are the factors affecting salinity?
The factors affecting the amount of salt in different oceans seas are called controlling factors of oceanic salinity. Evaporation, precipitation, the influx of river water, prevailing winds, ocean currents and sea waves are significant controlling factors.
Is a stream freshwater or saltwater?
Rivers and streams are moving bodies of freshwater. The water in a river or stream is largely made up of runoff from sources such as melting glaciers or rainwater. Rivers and streams usually empty into a lake or the ocean.
Does freshwater have salinity?
Freshwater is a term for water that has no appreciable salinity; that is, a low salt concentration. This is in contrast to saline water as seen in the case of the ocean, which averages 35 parts per thousand, with the term brackish water used for intermediate salinities between freshwater and salt water.
What happens when the salinity of the ocean changes?
What happens when salinity changes. However, the effect is greater if the salty water gets cold, as temperature has a greater effect on density than salinity does. A combination of high salinity and low temperature makes seawater so dense that it sinks to the bottom of the ocean and flows across ocean basins as deep, slow currents.
How does fresh water move from the ocean to the atmosphere?
As one move toward the poles, the region of rain decreases and with less rain and more sunshine, evaporation increases. Fresh water, in the form of water vapor, moves from the ocean to the atmosphere through evaporation causing the higher salinity.
What is the salinity of water in an estuary?
The salinity of water in the ocean averages about 35 parts per thousand (ppt). The mixture of seawater and fresh water in estuaries is called brackish water and its salinity can range from 0.5 to 35 ppt.
Why is the salinity of the Mediterranean Sea so high?
This causes the seawater to become denser. You can see on the map that the north and south Atlantic have high salinity – these are areas where there are strong winds and not much rain. The Mediterranean Sea in Europe has very high salinity – 38 ppt or more.