Vocabulary Notebook 2: Hydrosphere

Salinity is the amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, and is usually measured in grams of salt per liter or kilogram of water.

It's an important factor in water quality and aquatic ecosystems, and is a key indicator of changes in the water cycle.
Water with HIGHER salinity is MORE DENSE and sinks to the bottom.

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​Salinity

​Estuary

Definition:
Estuaries and their surrounding wetlands are bodies of water usually found where rivers meet the sea.

Estuaries are home to unique plant and animal communities that have adapted to brackish water—a mixture of fresh water draining from the land and salty seawater.

Nickname: Nurseries of the Sea. Many organisms are born here since the shallow water protects babies from larger predators. Also, there is an abundance of food sources for babies in Estuaries.


The seafood industry relies heavily on Estuaries; however, they must be careful not to fish too much, or else the entire estuary habitat will be negatively affected!

Brackish water refers to a water source that is somewhat salty (more so than freshwater) but not as salty as seawater.

Not all brackish water contains the exact same amount of salinity. Some have much more salt than others depending on where they are located.

a system of ocean currents that move water around the globe.
The conveyor belt is driven by differences in water temperature and salinity, which cause dense, cold water to sink to the bottom of the ocean while warm water remains on the surface.

​The conveyor belt begins in the Norwegian Sea, where warm water from the Gulf Stream heats the atmosphere and cools, making the water denser and causing it to sink.
The cold water sinks and moves south, making room for more warm water to be transported north. This cold bottom water eventually flows south of the equator to Antarctica, where it mixes with wind-driven upwelling and returns to the surface

Ocean conveyor Belt

The Coriolis effect is the apparent acceleration of a moving body on or near the Earth as a result of the Earth’s rotation.
The Coriolis effect is an important determinant of wind direction on a global scale.

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Coriolis Effect

Convection is the movement of particles through a substance, transporting their heat energy from hotter areas to cooler areas.

​Heated particles move fast, are less dense and rise.

They cool and become more dense as they rise. Once they are too dense, they will sink back down.
After they sink back down, they warm up again and the process continues on and on.

​Convection

​Upwelling is an oceanographic process that occurs when wind and the Earth's rotation push warm surface water away and replace it with cold, nutrient-rich water from below.
Upwelling can occur in the open ocean and along coastlines- In the USA, it happens along the Oregon coast western USA). It's most likely to happen when winds blow parallel to the shore. The nutrients in the upwelled water fertilize the surface waters, which encourages plant growth and makes the area biologically productive. This makes upwelling areas good for fishing, and they are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.
GREAT FOR THE FISHING INDUSTRY!

Upwelling

Downwelling is the downward movement of surface water in the ocean, and it's the opposite of upwelling, which is the upward movement of fluid.

NOT GREAT FOR FISHING INDUSTRY!

​Downwelling

A watershed is a land area that drains water into a specific body of water, such as a river, lake, or stream.

​Although it is called a WATERshed, it's important to know that it is LAND that surrounds water. Watersheds can be as small as a footprint or as large as the land that drains into the Yadkin River.
Randolph County is part of the Yadkin- Pee Dee River shed. The water from our land drains into the Yadkin and Pee Dee Rivers which flow into the Atlantic Oceans.

Watershed