Water, Waves, and Tides Chapter 4

Nature of Water Physical properties of water – water is an excellent solvent Structure of a water molecule A water molecule contains two atoms of _________and one atom of ________ Water molecules are_________– different parts have different electrical charges

Physical Properties of Water All of water’s unique physical properties are caused by water’s_______________. The unique way in which the hydrogen atoms are attached to the oxygen atom causes one side of the molecule to have a __________ charge and the area in the opposite direction to have a _____________ charge. The resulting polarity of charge causes molecules of water to be ____________to each other forming strong molecular bonds.

The atomic structure of a water

Cohesion and Adhesion Water is attracted to other water. This is called ____________,this is the reason why water is found in drops. Water can also be attracted to other materials. This is called __________.

Nature of Water The cohesiveness of water gives water a high_________ _________. Small organisms like water striders use surface tension to give them support.

Nature of Water Freezing point and boiling point Freezing point_______ Solid water (ice) is _______dense than liquid water, and it floats Water freezes at its surfaces, the water below stays liquid allowing organisms to stay alive below the frozen surface When salt water freezes it leaves the ________ behind The water beneath the ice has a ________salinity Salt ions interfere with the formation of hydrogen bonds, so seawater does not have a fixed freezing point.

Water density changes with temperature and salinity. When water freezes at 0°C, a rigid web-like open structure of hydrogen-bonded molecules is formed. The open structure makes ice less dense than liquid water. This is why icebergs float.

Nature of Water Oil does not dissolve in water Water as a solvent Water is considered to be the universal solvent.  More substances will dissolve in water than any other liquid.  Salt dissolves in water Oil does not dissolve in water  

Nature of Water Specific heat Water and light Oceans maintain a more or less constant temperature Because of the relatively stable temperature of the ocean marine organisms have not evolved mechanisms for adapting to rapid fluctuations in temperature Water and light Water reflects some light off the surface Photosynthesis Photosynthetic organisms are restricted to the upper, sunlit surface waters Vision Objects appear more blue and green underwater In turbid water light is absorbed in the 1st meter (3.3 feet) In tropical waters light can penetrate 200 meters (660 feet)

Nature of Water Chemical properties of water The pH of pure water is ______ The pH of ocean water is determined by the _________ dissolved in it Seawater is slightly________, with an average pH of____ The pH of an organism’s internal and external environment is a vital factor in determining the _______________________ Example: corals cannot grow in water that is acidic because the low pH inhibits their ability to form external skeletons

Composition of Seawater Ocean water is referred to as salt water and has a high quantity of dissolved salts The proportions of the major salts in seawater are relatively_________. ________can change, the ______________ do not. Major ions in Seawater % Chloride (Cl) 55.07 Sodium (Na) 30.06 Sulfate (SO4 ) 7.72 Magnesium (Mg) 3.68 Calcium (Ca) 1.17 Potassium (K) 1.10 Bicarbonate (HC03 ) 0.40 Total 99.76

Salinity Salinity is an environmental factor that strongly influences marine organisms Marine organisms must maintain appropriate levels of salts and water in their bodies The variety of salts are important in determining the kinds and distribution of organisms in the marine environment Salinity is expressed as grams of salt per kilogram of water parts per thousand (_____or 0/00 )

Winds and Currents Winds are produced by differences in the ____________of air. The oceans are in constant motion both from ________that generate waves and currents and from the pull of _________ that creates the tides.

Winds and Currents

El Niño-Southern Ocean Oscillation El Niño-Southern Oscillation is a periodic change in the atmosphere and ocean of the tropical Pacific region. El Niño is the _________ phase of the oscillation and La Niña is the ________ phase. ENSO is associated with floods, droughts and other weather disturbances in many regions of the world. An El Niño occurs about every three to eight years

El Niño El Niño's __________current of nutrient-__________ tropical water, replaces the_________, nutrient-_______ surface water, normally found along the coast of Peru When El Niño conditions last for many months, ocean warming occurs resulting in serious economic impact to local fishing There is a dramatic reduction in marine fish and plant life.

El Niño – how it happens

Coriolis Effect This effect is caused by the __________of the Earth. Winds blow at an angle to the equator. Winds in the northern hemisphere blow to the ________and winds in the southern hemisphere blow to the_____. The water at the ocean surface is moved by the Earth’s spin and the Coriolis Effect.

The Earth heats unevenly The earth heats unevenly because it is a sphere and because of the tilt of its axis. It is summer in the Northern Hemisphere even though the Earth is farther from the sun than in winter because of the Earth’s tilt

Surface Ocean Currents The water of the ocean surface moves in a regular pattern called surface ocean currents. Surface ocean currents can be very large. The Gulf Stream, a surface current in the North Atlantic, carries 4500 times more water than the Mississippi River. the Gulf Stream, as it flows and forms off of Florida, moves approximately 30 million cubic meters per second. Off the coast of Cape Hatteras, the Gulf Stream moves an estimated 80 – 90 million cubic meters per second.

Ocean Layers and Ocean Mixing Seasonal turnover mixes the deeper nutrient-rich, oxygen-poor water with the oxygen-rich, nutrient poor surface waters. Wave action and currents play roles in mixing deep and surface waters. Evaporation, precipitation, and temperature affect the density of seawater. Changes in density contribute to vertical mixing.

Density of Seawater The density of seawater varies with temperature and salinity of the water. As temperature increases, density decreases. As salinity increases, density also increases.

Ocean Layers and Ocean Mixing Water stratification occurs when water of high and low salinity (____________), as well as cold and warm water (____________), forms layers that act as barriers to water mixing.

Ocean Layers _________________ – a zone of rapid temperature change _________________- are layers of water where the water's salinity changes rapidly with depth. ________________- are layers of water where the water density changes rapidly with depth.

Thermohaline circulation Thermohaline circulation, occurs deep within the ocean and acts like a conveyor belt as oceans absorb, store, and redistribute vast amounts of the Sun's heat around the globe.

Thermohaline circulation Thermohaline circulation is driven by changes in the ______________ of sea water. The conveyor belt transfers warm water from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic as a _____________ current and returns cold water from the Atlantic to the Pacific as a _________ current that flows further south.

The ocean conveyor belt The ocean conveyor belt plays a crucial role in the Earth's_______________. Global climate changes could alter, or even halt, the current as we know it today.

The ocean conveyor belt The oceanic conveyor belt is important to northern Europe's moderate climate because of northward transport of heat in the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current. The system can weaken or shut down entirely if the North Atlantic surface-water salinity somehow drops too low to allow the formation of deep-ocean water masses. This apparently happened during the Little Ice Age (about 1400 to 1850 AD). The conveyer system shut down and northern Europe's climate became colder. Cores extracted from deep-sea sediment deposits contain evidence of earlier cold periods.

SALINITY AND DEEP OCEAN CURRENTS Ocean currents arise in many different ways. __________ pushes the water along the surface to form wind-driven currents. __________ ocean currents are caused by differences in water temperature and salinity.

Review of Concepts Salt water is ___________ dense than fresh water, and is therefore heavier. When ocean water evaporates, the water becomes more dense because most of the salt remains in the water. In some regions of the ocean, circulation is based upon the mixing between more dense surface water and less dense layers of deeper water.

Upwelling and Downwelling the deflection due to the Coriolis effect reverses direction on either side of the equator westward-flowing, wind-driven surface currents near the equator turn northward on the north side of the equator and southward on the south side. surface waters are moved away from the equator and replaced by upwelling waters.

Coastal upwelling occurs where surface waters away from the coast; surface waters are replaced by water that wells up from below. Where surface waters move toward the coast, the water piles up and sinks in the process known as coastal downwelling.

Upwelling and downwelling influence sea-surface temperature and biological productivity upwelling waters are usually _______ in the dissolved nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphate compounds) required for phytoplankton growth.  nutrient transport into the surface waters where sunlight, is present, results in rapid growth of __________________, the base of marine food webs the world's most productive fisheries are located in areas of coastal _____________ that bring cold nutrient rich waters to the surface about half the world's total fish catch comes from upwelling zones.

Peruvian Anchovy Effect Alternate upwelling of nutrient poor and nutrient rich waters off the coast of Ecuador and Peru are associated with El Niño and La Niña episodes. During El Niño the pycnocline is so deep that the upwelled waters come from the nutrient poor waters above the pycnocline. In extreme cases, nutrient-deficient waters coupled with over-fishing cause fisheries to _________________ bringing about severe, extended economic impacts.

Peruvian Anchovy Effect Upwelled systems of the ocean are ______ areas _______ in nutrients and productivity. large marine fisheries develop there. During an El Niño, upwelling decreases, the _____________ lowers, and the warmer water near the surface _______ the nutrients found during cold conditions.

Peruvian Anchovy Effect Beginning in the 1950s, an important anchovy fishing industry developed and grew in Peru, due to the huge numbers of anchovies that lived in the areas of cold, nutrient-rich waters welling up off the Peruvian coast. By 1971, the Peruvian anchovy harvest had climbed to 12.5 million tons per year. in 1972, an El Niño year, the anchovy stocks declined sharply. Only 2.5 million tons were harvested that year, leading to great economic hardship and a virtual collapse of the Peruvian fishing industry.

Peruvian Anchovy Effect The decrease in the anchovy population triggered a series of interrelated problems. much of the anchovy catch is processed into fishmeal. During the growth years of the Peruvian fishing industry, the fishmeal had become a major source of feed for livestock and poultry around the world. When the anchovy catch collapsed in 1972, nations around the world that had become dependent on the fishmeal had to find other, more expensive, sources of feed. This caused meat prices to rise. In the United States, poultry prices rose more than 40%

Peruvian Anchovy Effect Another result of the drop in the anchovy population was the death of many birds, which had depended on the anchovies for food. The death of the birds, aside from being a tragic loss in itself, caused a decrease in the harvest of bird droppings which had become an important source of fertilizer for Peruvian farmers. Thus the loss of the anchovies affected not only Peruvian fishermen, but also Peruvian farmers.

Waves A wave represents a flow of __________ or motion, not a flow of water The ____________is either dissipated at sea or transferred to a beach or structures on the beach when the wave strikes. Surf zone – the area along a coast where waves slow down, become steeper, break, and disappear.

Waves Tsunamis – tidal waves Sudden movements of the earth’s crust produce earthquakes, which can produce large seismic sea waves (tsunamis) The waves surge over land can cause mass destruction

Waves 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake The earthquake was caused by_______________ The tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people in eleven countries Waves were up to 30 meters (100 ft.) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were the hardest hit.

After one hour Tsunami began with a 9.2 earthquake

Tides Tides are caused by the ______________ pull of the moon and the sun. Spring tides occur at ______ moon and ______ moon when the sun and the moon’s gravity align (they are in a straight line). Causing the highest high tides and the lowest low tides

Tides Smaller tides are produced Neap tides occur when the moon and sun are at right angles Smaller tides are produced

Global Warming As the Earth heats up, there could be an increase in precipitation and a melting of freshwater ice in the Arctic Ocean which would flow into the Atlantic Ocean. Additional freshwater could dilute the Atlantic Gulf Stream to the point where it would not continue to sink into the depths of the ocean.