Seawater Basic Glossary: In Simple Words

Seawater: Water that makes up the oceans and seas, covering more than 70% of Earths surface. It is a complex mixture of 96.5% water, 2.5% salts. And smaller amounts of other substances, including dissolved inorganic and organic materials, particulates and a few atmospheric gases.

Voice Over: Almost anything can be found in seawater. This includes dissolved materials form the Earth's crust as well as materials released from organisms. The most important components of seawater that influence life forms are SALINITY, TEMPERATURE, DISSOLVED GASES, NUTRIENTS and PH. Salinity is important because it affects the transport of water into the cells of marine organisms. The salinity of seawater is a total of all the salts that are dissolved in the water, which is 3.5%. This dissolved salt is always made up of the same types of salts and they are always in the same proportion to each other. Some of the contributors to seawater salinity are: Chloride, Sodium, Sulfate, Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium, Bicarbonate, Bromide, Borate, Strontium, Fluoride and many others. Surface water often may be lacking in nutrients because feces and dead matter tend to settle to the bottom of the ocean. Most decomposition is thus at the bottom of the ocean. Nutrients are returned to surface waters by a special type of current called "upwelling" and it is in these areas where the highest productivity of marine life is found.

Table Salt: Table salt is rock or ocean salt that is mined, heated blasted, chemically treated and then iodine is added to it. Table salt, in this way is basically dead. It is just dry sodium and chloride. Processed salt is devoid of all the essential minerals and macrobiotic nutrients that our bodies need to survive.

Sea Salt: Natural, organic sea salt maintains its integrity. It keeps the correct balance of sodium and chloride as well as calcium, magnesium, potassium and 90 other trace and micro-nutrients.

Voice Over: Consider this, when you cry your tears are salty, and if you've cut yourself and tasted your blood, you know it is salty. The fluids in our bodies are like an ocean environment. Salt is essential for life and yet our bodies cannot make it so it must come from an outside source. Most often it comes from meat or regular table salt. The problem is that our bodies don't really know what to do with processed salt. Years of processed salt intake can damage almost all areas of the body such as the heart, kidneys, muscles and bones and it is processed salt that bloats us and causes water retention. Processed salt can put a body out of balance. When natural sea salt is ingested, it immediately works with the saliva in the mouth and starts the digestive process. The more minerals present in the mouth the more digestion takes place. Digestion continues in the stomach. Natural organic sea salt has been known to lower blood pressure and decrease water retention. It enables the liver, kidneys and adrenals to work much more efficiently. It can boost the immune system. Natural sea salt has all the elements of the ocean and this means that the survival potential of a body is much greater that if you remove these vital elements.

Plankton:

Plankton means "errant", "wanderer" or "drifter". Plankton are any organisms that live in the water column and typically flow with ocean currents. Plankton provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic organisms, such as fish and whales. Plankton are primarily divided into phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacterioplankton. This divides the plankton community into producer, consumer and recycler. Voice Over: Plankton are microscopic organisms that float freely with oceanic currents and in bodies of water. Plankton is made up of tiny plants called phytoplankton and tiny animals called zooplankton. Plankton is the first link in the marine food chain; it is eaten by many organisms, including mussels, fish, birds, and mammals. Phytoplankton also provide the primary food source for the zooplankton, and together form the base of oceanic food chain. Larger and larger zooplankton, fish, and mammals depend on these plankton for their survival. Tying it all together, the bacterioplankton play an important role in the recycling and remineralization of materials and energy within the food chain. Phytoplankton: Algae that live near the water surface where there is sufficient light to support photosynthesis. Zooplankton: Small protozoans or metazoans e.g. crustaceans and other animals that feed on other plankton as well as some of the eggs and larvae of larger animals. Phytoplankton are primary producers. As the base of the oceanic food web, they use chlorophyll to convert energy from sunlight, inorganic chemicals like nitrogen, and dissolved carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. Zooplankton are microscopic animals that eat other plankton. Some zooplankton are larval or very immature stages of other animals, some are single-celled animals and some are tiny crustaceans.

Osmosis:

The tendency of a fluid, usually water, to pass through a semipermeable membrane into a solution where the solvent concentration is higher, thus equalizing the concentration of materials on either side of the membrane. In nature, osmosis is an essential process by means of which nutrients are delivered to the cells. There are some key terms related to osmosis which may be helpful to know when thinking about how osmosis works. The fluid which passes through the membrane is known as a solvent, while the dissolved substance in the fluid is a solute. Together, the solvent and the dissolved solute make a solution. When a solution has low levels of a solute, it is considered to be hypotonic, while solutions with high solute levels are known as hypertonic. The end result of osmosis, barring external factors, will be equal amounts of fluid on either side of the barrier, creating a state which is known as isotonic. Osmosis is key for every living organism on Earth, from humans to plants.

Isotonic:

Hypertonic:

Containing the same concentration of salts as the human body, that is to say, a solution that has the same salt concentration as cells and blood.

Containing a higher concentration of salts than the human body.