Introduction:
Salt water refers to water that contains dissolved salts, known as saline water or seawater, water from oceans or seas. It is a home to varieties of aquatic animals, for example, fishes and snails. Some of these animals find it difficult to live in fresh water. If salt water animals go to live in fresh water they can not adapt the environment led to die to them. This essay aims to discuss the importance of salt water and the sub- types namely ocean, sea, and coral reefs. It will also show pictures where it is found and the aquariums that are inhabitants. In other to achieve this objective, this essay will be further divided into five sections. Section 2 will discuss ocean, section 3 seas, section 4 coral reefs and section 5 is the conclusion.
Section 2 Oceans
Oceans are salt water surrounding the great land masses, and divided by the land masses into several distinct portions. Wikipedia (2008) also defines an ocean as a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface, an area of some 361 million square kilometres is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand /3.5%, and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Examples of oceans are Indian, Pacific, Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean.
The diagram below shows the depth of an ocean from the high water salt level to the low water level and to the Hadalpelagic level.
Different Life forms are native to the oceans; they include Radiata, Fish, and Cetacea such as whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cephalopods such as the octopus, Crustaceans such as lobsters and shrimp, Marine worms, Plankton, Krill and Echinoderms also form part of the fauna in the oceans, which are also found in many parts
Bibliography: http://www.pcrf.org/reeffacts.html- accessed on 31 May 2008 http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/rescuereef/explore/facts.html- accessed on 30 May 2008 Wikipedia accessed on 29 May 2008 –www.wikipedia.com http.wordnet.princeton.edu -30 May 2008 http://www.whale-images.com/sea-animals-photos.htm