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Understanding Sea Water: From Global to Microscales

Explore the basic characteristics, mechanisms, and phenomena of sea water, including salinity, molecular cohesion, and impacts on organisms. Learn about its temperature, density, and coherence from mesoscale to microscale. Understand the importance of salinity components and how water density affects circulation and gas exchange in oceans.

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Understanding Sea Water: From Global to Microscales

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  1. Scales of importance from global to micro

  2. Temporal Scales vary

  3. Global currents

  4. mesoscale

  5. microscale

  6. What do we need to know about the basic characteristics of sea water? • Important phenomena: • Dissolves many compounds • Heats and cools more slowly than land masses • Remains liquid over a large range of temp’s • Flows in coherent bodies

  7. Mechanisms for characteristics • Polarity of the water molecule • Dissociation to H+ and OH-

  8. Universal Solvent

  9. “Salinity” • 3.5% of seawater is dissolved substances • Chloride & Sodium (85.65% of d.s.) • Magnesium & Sulfate (11.37% of d.s.) • Calcium & Potassium (2.26 of d.s.) • Other important, but rarer, components • bicarbonate, bromide, boric acid, iron, strontium

  10. “Saline” or “Haline”? • PSU (practical salinity units) • Parts per thousand • 3.5% equals 35 psu – • But accurate measurements use conductivity relative to a standard • Why is ‘salty’ inland water different than seawater?

  11. High Molecular Cohesion High Viscosity, High Surface Tension Consequences to Organisms? consider small scale to large scale

  12. coherence of water of similar temperature

  13. High “Heat capacity” • Combination of slower evaporation at high temperatures, and large amount of heat gained when changing from solid to liquid • Sea water changes temperature slowly

  14. Temperature & salinity affect water density • Highest density of ocean water = -1.9 C • (pure water highest density is 4 C, so ice floats) • Very cold ocean water sinks • promotes circulation between surface and depths • most ocean is open water at surface (important for gas exchange) • Ocean ice floats (why?)

  15. Density + Coherence at small scale = • segregation of water bodies at large scale

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