Chemistry of sea water. Life Sciences. Research Paper

Chemistry of seawater
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Introduction
Seawater, water that makes up seas and oceans, covers more than 70% of earth surface. Seawater is an intricate mixture of 2.5% salts, 96.5% water, and smaller amounts of other substances, including atmospheric gases, particulates, and dissolved organic and inorganic substances. Unlike fresh water, the density, temperature, salinity, and chemical composition of seawater is influenced by several factors including latitude and depth. In fact, determining the exact chemical nature of seawater is difficult because some of the dissolved substances are present in very high concentrations while others are not detected in seawater yet they are present in marine life. Despite the existence of such differences, the main features of features of seawater relate to those of freshwater because they share common chemical and physical characteristics. This paper examines the composition, salinity, temperature, and density of seawater.
Composition of seawater
The main Characteristics of seawater correspond to those of fresh water because of common physical and chemical properties. Like fresh water, the molecular structure of seawater favors the formation of bonds among molecules. Therefore, seawater mainly comprises of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, sulfate, and magnesium. According to Millero (2014), the weight of these ions constitutes 99% of sea water.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: The main components of seawater
The other major dissolved substances in seawater are inorganic fluoride, bromide, carbon, strontium, and boron. Although there are also numerous minor dissolved chemical constituents, inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous are notable because of their importance to the growth of organisms that reside in the seas. The growth and survival of organisms in the sea is guaranteed by various gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and argon, which dissolve into the seawater directly from the atmosphere. Furthermore, there are dissolved organic substances such as amino acids, carbohydrates, and organic-rich particulates in sea water. Organic substances in seawater primarily originate from upper 100 of the ocean, where dissolved inorganic carbon is turned into organic matter through photosynthesis (Ehrhardt, 2017).
Salinity of seawater
There are numerous chemicals in seawater that influence its salinity. The majority of the chemicals get in seas through rivers carrying chemicals dissolved out of rock and soil. The primary chemical that affects seawater salinity is sodium chloride, which is often referred to as salt. Most of the seawater at the surface has about 35 g of salt in every 1,000 g of water. Likewise, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration indicates that the salinity of seawater at the deepest point of the ocean is 34.5 to 35 g of salt in every 1,000 g of water. Although this figure seems insignificant, Ehrhardt, (2017) indicates that it would take approximately two large shipping containers full of salt to make an Olympic-size swimming pool to be as salty as the sea.
The salinity of the sea differs from location to location, especially at the surface. Much of seawater has salt concentration of 34 ppt to 36 ppt, but there are locations that have lower or higher salinity. In parts of the ocean where rain hardly falls and warm dry winds passes, the salinity of the seawater is likely to be high because water vapor rises into the atmosphere leaving salt behind. The map below shows north and south Atlantic locations that have high salinity because they experience less rain and strong winds.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2: Salinity in North and South Atlantic locations
Similarly, the Mediterranean Sea has very high salinity of 38 ppt or more. The high salinity is a result of the Mediterranean Sea being closed from the main ocean and experiencing more evaporation than rain.
However, locations of the sea that receive huge amount of rain have low salini...