SALINITY

NEENU. M. G
I M.Sc.
Ad.No:AQB2018/04
Dept. Of Aquatic Biology
& Fisheries
 SALINITY
 Seawater is a solution of about 96.5% water & 3.5% dissolved salts.
 Salinity is the total amount of solid materials in grams contained in 1kg of seawater.
 It is usually expressed as ppt/ PSU & written as S%ₒ.
 Most important salt in seawater is NaCl/common table salt.
 75% of seawater has a salinity ranging between 34-35ppt.
Variation In Salinity
 High latitudes have low surface salinity
-High precipitation & runoff
-Low evaporation
 Tropics have high surface salinity
-High evaporation
-Low precipitation
 Equator has a dip in surface salinity
-High precipitation partially offsets high evaporation
SALINITY VARIATION WITH DEPTH
• High latitudes – salinity increases with depth
• Low latitudes – salinity decreases with depth
• Deep ocean salinity fairly consistent globally
• Halocline – separates ocean layers of different salinity
Salinity near the surface in the northern Bay of Bengal can be low as
31ppt because it receives lots of freshwater in the form of rain & from
river runoff.
But in Arabian Sea it is much higher because the evaporation rate is
high there.
Thus we can say that if precipitation exceeds evaporation, salinity
decreases& vice versa.
 METHODS OF DETERMINING SALINITY
1.Evaporation:it is the ratio of mass of salts to mass of water
• Expressed in psu
2.Specific gravity/Density:
• By using Hydrometer
• The addition of salts increase the density of seawater as compared to
pure water.
• The salinity can be calculated by measuring the S.G of water sample
using hydrometer
• S.G of freshwater is 1
• As salt is added the S.G will increase
3.Refraction:
• Based upon the refractive index of light passing through a prism
• By using Refractometer.
4.Electrical Conductivity: The conductivity of sea water depends on the number of
dissolved ions per volume (i.e. Salinity)and the mobility of the ions (i.e temperature
and pressure).
• Its units are mS/cm.
• Conductivity increases by the same amount with a salinity increase of 0.01psu.
5.Titration: the amount of halogens(Cl¯, Br¯,I¯ & F¯) in the water sample(Chlorinity)
is determined by using AgNO3 titration method.
• Thus salinity is calculated by Salinity=1.80655x Chlorinity
Thus by the Commission of the International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea , Salinity is :
“total amount of solid materials in grams contained in 1Kg of seawater
when all the carbonate has been converted to oxide, the Br & I replaced
by Cl & all organic matter completely oxidized”.