LIFESCI 2H03 Lecture 8: lec8.PDF
3 Feb 2015
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Document Summary
Salinity: salinity - is the total amount of solid material (i. e. nacl) that has dissolved in water. Is the key factor as to how oceans are working: typical salinity is 3. 5% or 35 /oo. /oo or parts per thousand (ppt) = grams of salt per kilogram of salt water (g/kg): six elements make up 99% of dissolved solids in seawater. Salinity variations: open ocean salinity is ~33-38 /oo, coastal areas salinity varies more widely, entry of fresh water lowers salinity. there is less salt due to water diluting the salt concentrations which are present. when water is added to a water body with salt present - the concentration of water is greater than that of the salts present. therefore - there is a decrease and dilution in the concentration of the salts. Graph shows the critical elements that make up most of the salinity of the water.
