Oceanography

• Greek word- Oceanus+ graphos means

description of oceans. It is scientific
investigations, exploration and exploitation of
seafood, minerals and energy
• Oceanography is the scientific study of the
ocean. It is not a single science. There is four
parts viz. Chemical, biological, physical and
geological. Ocean engineering and marine policy
is also included
 Oceanography
• Chemical oceanography is concerned with
chemical reactions that occur both in the
ocean and on the sea floor
• Bio. Ocean. Involves the study of
distribution and environmental aspects of
life
• Physical reactions, such as changes and
motion of sea water are comes under
physical oceanography
 Oceanography
• The marine geologist studies the sediments and
topography of the ocean floor. The deeper
structure and its physical properties are domain
of marine geophysicist
• The marine engineer is mainly concerned with
the development of technology for
oceanographic research and exploitation
• The marine policy is application of social and
political sciences towards the use and
management of the ocean
 Why study of ocean
• Hostile and not readily accessible
environment that does not easily yield its
secrets
• Ocean is source of many commercially
valuable chemicals
• Record of geological and biological history
• Important food
 FATHER OF OCEANOGRAPHY
•Lt Mathew Fontaine Maury is often called
the father of oceanography
•Maury’s maps of ocean currents, sea
surface temperature and surface winds are
among his greatest accomplishments
Ocean basin
 Ocean basin
• Ocean basins can be described as saucer like
depressions of the sea bed
• They vary in size from relatively minor features
of the continental margin to vast structural
divisions of the deep ocean
• The largest ocean basins are 3 to 5 km deep
and stretch from the outer margins of the
continents to the mid ocean ridges
• Ocean basins cover approximately 71% of the
Earth’s surface or about 361 m km2
 Ocean basin
• Their depth is 5000 m and the total volume is
about 1.35 billion km3
• There are five major sub divisions of the world
ocean: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the
Southern and the Arctic ocean
• The Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian oceans
are conventional ocean basins and are bounded
by the continental masses or by ocean ridges
and currents; they merge below 400 South
latitude in Antarctic circumpolar current, or west
wind drift, at the Southern ocean
 Pacific ocean basin
• The pacific ocean basin is bounded on the
east by the North and South American
continents; on the north by the Bering
Strait; on the west by Asia, the Malay
Archipelago, and Australia; and on the
south by the Southern ocean
• It is by far the largest and deepest of the
world’s oceans and contains more than
half of its free water
 Pacific ocean basin
• The pacific is the oldest of the existing ocean
basins, its oldest rocks having been dated at
about 200 m years
• The major features of the basin have been
shaped by the phenomenon associated with
plate tectonics
• The coastal shelf, which extends to depths of
about 180 m, is narrow along North and South
America, but is relatively wide along Asia and
Australia
 Pacific ocean basin
• The east Pacific rise, a mid ocean ridge, extends
from the Gulf of California to a point west of the
southern tip of South America, and rises an
average of 2130 m above the ocean floor
• Along the East Pacific rise, molten rock up wells
from earth’s mantle, adding crust to the plates
on each side of the rise. Due to that the ocean
plates forced downward, farming deep trenches
called subduction zone
• The stresses at these areas of subduction are
responsible for the earthquakes and volcanoes
that the Pacific basin the name ‘ring of fire’
 Atlantic ocean basin
• Second largest ocean basin, the most heavily
traveled, and the most intensely studied,
principally because of its importance in the ship
traffic between Europe and North America
• Occupies 20% of Earth’s surface, representing
approximately 75 m km2 , this includes its
marginal seas; Baltic, Black, Caribbean, Davis
strait, Denmark strait, Gulf of Mexico,
Mediterranean sea, North sea, Norwegian sea,
and almost all of the Scotia sea
 Atlantic ocean basin
• The Atlantic is divided into two nominal sections:
North Atlantic and South Atlantic
• The ocean is essentially an S- shaped north-
south channel, extending from Arctic ocean in
the North to Southern ocean in the south
• The Atlantic ocean has an average depth of
3926 m, the deepest point is Milwaukee deep in
the Puerto Rico Trench (8605 m below surface
• It began to form during the Jurassic period,
about 150 m years ago
 Atlantic ocean basin
• Along the American, African and European
coasts, there are the continental shelves
of the Atlantic basin
 Indian ocean basin
• It is third largest of the five oceans
• Bounded on west by Africa, on North by Asia, on the
east by Australia and the Australian islands, and on the
south by the Southern ocean
• No natural boundary separates the Indian ocean from
the Atlantic ocean, but a line about 4020 km long,
connecting Cape Agulhas at the southern end of Africa
with Antarctica
• Total area is 68 m km2, which includes its marginal seas;
Adman sea, Arabian sea, Bay of Bengal, Great
Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Persian
Gulf, Red sea and Strait of Malacca
 Indian ocean basin
• The average depth of the basin is about
4210 m, although the Java trench reaches
a depth of over 7258 m
• The Indian basin is also divided in half by
the mid Indian Ocean ridge
 Southern ocean basin
• It extends from the coast of Antarctica
north to 600 South latitude
• It is fourth largest ocean of the world
• Its area is 20 m km2 and includes
Amundsen sea, Bellingshausen sea, Ross
sea, Weddell sea
 Arctic ocean basin
• The smallest of Earth’s five ocean basin is
the Arctic
• It extends from the North pole to the
shores of Europe, Asia and North America
• The surface waters of the Arctic ocean
mingle with those of the Pacific ocean
through the Bering strait, by way of a
narrow and a shallow channel
• The total water area is 14 m km2
 Arctic ocean basin
• Approximately one third of the Arctic
ocean is underlain by continental shelf,
which includes a broad shelf north of
Eurasia and the narrower shelves of North
America and Greenland
• The average depth of the Arctic ocean is
only about 1500 m
• The deepest point in the Arctic ocean is
5450 m
 Distribution of water and land
• Area of earth surface is 510.1 m km2
• Land area- 148.8 m km2 (29.2%)
• Ocean area- 361.3 m km2 (70.8%)
• The world ocean is a continuous water blanket
over the earth adjacent to all of the continents
and islands and possesses a generally salty
structure
• In the Northern Hemisphere, the world ocean
occupies 61% of the area and in the Southern
Hemisphere, 81%
 Distribution of water and land
• In one hemisphere the land dominated and in
one the water is dominated, water will appear to
cover more than half of the area (53%)
• The oceanic hemisphere takes up about 91% of
the area
• The land predominates only between latitudes of
450 N and 700 N, and to the south from latitudes
700 to south pole. Water predominates the
remaining part of the Globe
 Distribution of water and land
• The shapes of the shorelines, bottom,
relief, systems of oceanic currents, tides,
atmospheric circulation and a number of
other criteria subdivide the world ocean
into Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and
Southern ocean
• On the surface of the earth, altitudes less
than 1000 m and depths from 3000 up to
6000 m are predominate
 Distribution of water and land
• The water cover of the earth has volume of 1389.5 m
km3 and 97.4% of this consists salt water. Of this
volume, 96.5% is in the world ocean and 0.9% is in salty
underground and lake waters
• Freshwater comprises only of 2.6% of the total volume of
the hydrosphere
• World ocean contain s 1340.7 m km3 of water, making
up 1/ 800th of the total volume of the earth
• In the process of exchanging water with the atmosphere
and continents, world ocean annually produces
atmospheric precipitation of about 458000 km3, both
rivers and ground water produce 48000 km3 of water
• Evaporation from the surface of the ocean produces
506000 km3
 Temperature as a physical
environmental factor
• Temp. is one of the most important factors in an
aquatic environment
• Radiation from the sun striking the earth’s
surface of virtually all the energy that heats the
ocean surface and warms the lower portion of
the atmosphere
• Part of this incoming solar radiation is within the
visible part of the spectrum and provides the
energy to the plants on land and in the ocean
• After passing into the surface of ocean, most of
this energy is converted into heat, either raising
water temperature or causing evaporation
 Temperature as a physical
environmental factor
• The spectrum of radiant energy from the sun is
filtered once as it passes through the
atmosphere and further filtered in the surface
ocean
• Within first 10 cm of even pure water, virtually all
the infrared portion of the spectrum is absorbed
and changed into heat
• Within the first meter, about 60% of the entering
radiation is absorbed, about 80% is absorbed in
the first 10 m, only 10% remains at 140 m in
clearest subtropical ocean waters
 Heat budget in ocean
• Less than 20% of the solar radiation reaching
Earth is absorbed by atmospheric gases and
clouds, 50% is absorbed by earth’s surface
mostly the ocean and 31% is reflected back to
the space
• The oceans effectively capture a major portion
(about 50%) of the sun’s radiated energy and
transfer much of it to the atmosphere as latent
heat of vaporization and as radiation
 Sources of heat in ocean
• Solar energy- it is about 300 watt/m2
• Geologic source
– Heat generated by the radioactive decay of
elements within earth (about 0.1 micro watt/
m2)
– Heat left over from earth’s formation
• Human induced through burning of fossil
fuels (3 milli watt/ m2)
 Output of heat
• The evaporation/ precipitation cycle is an
important part of the heat energy released
into the atmosphere
• About 2/3 is evaporated and 1/3 is
radiated
 Temperature distribution in ocean
• Max. amount of incoming solar radiation is
received in low latitudes (the earth receives most
of its heat between 400 N & 400 S, where as
there is a net loss to space in the high latitudes
between 400 & 900 in both the hemispheres
• The temperature difference between warmest
and coldest month of the year is small < 30C in
low latitudes (100 N to 100 S)
• When sun is over head only 2% of incoming
radiation is reflected
 Temperature distribution in ocean
• The fall in temperature with increase in depth,
results into the increase of density, which gives
vital vertical stability to maintain water masses in
the ocean
• Temperature difference is very limited since
there is continuous circulation of the water
• Surface water has some effect of atmosphere
and reduce with the depth in deep sea temp.
constant at 40 C. Deep water temp. is 00 C near
Antarctic and 2- 4 0 C towards the equator
 Temperature distribution in ocean
• The surface water of low latitudes, the
temperature is mostly ranging between 26
to 300 C. Surface temperature may
become as high as 350 C in the Persian
gulf. In some of the tropical lagoons and
intertidal rock pools the temperature may
rise to even 500 C in summers
Vertical temperature distribution
• Not uniform
• In middle and low latitudes below the
isothermal area, there is strikingly the
difference exist between the isothermal
water and the deep water
• A layer between sudden and max. temp.
decrease per unit depth. Change in
vertical temp. gradient is known as
thermocline
Thermocline
 Thermocline
• The thermocline (sometimes
metalimnion) is a layer within a body of
water or air where the temperature
changes rapidly with depth
• Below this layer however, the temperature
drops very rapidly—perhaps as much as
200 C with an additional 150 m of depth
• In the ocean 90% of the water is below
thermocline (consist of equal density)
 Thermocline
• Varies with latitude and season. It is permanent in
tropics, variable in temperate and weak to nonexistent in
polar region
• PT formed at depth from 100- 500 m due to equator
ward flow of deep coldwater from poles and the pole
ward flow of warm water from the surface of equator
• Temporary derived mainly due to change in temperature
and it is not stable, formed at the depth of 100 to 150 m
• Diurnal- formed very near to the surface (about 10 m
depth) during day and governed by difference in temp.
due to diurnal effect
 Density of sea water
• Determined primarily by temperature and salinity
• Decreases with temperature and increases with
salinity
• Changing salinity from 19 to 26 ppt at constant
temp. (30 0 C) has the same effect as changing
the temp. from 31 to 12 0 C at constant salinity
(20 pot)
• Vertically stratified due to change in salinity
• Densest water at bottom
• Neutrally stable system when density is same
 Density of sea water
• In coastal waters, mixing is common
because tidal currents and movement of
waters
• Three general depth zones according to
density i.e. surface, pycnocline and deep
zone are formed
 Process of heating and cooling
• Heating (Qs) • Cooling
– Insolation – Back radiation (Qb)
– Convection through inner – Convection of heat from
core earth to atmosphere (Qh)
– Transformation of kinetic – Heat loss due to
energy evaporation (Qe)
– Heating due to chemical
processes
– Convection of atmospheric
heat
– Condensation of water
vapour
Tolerance to temperature variation
• Stenothermal • Eurythermal
• Tolerate only slight • Tolerate a wide range
variation of of temperature
temperature • Have temperature
• Internal body regulating mechanism
temperature fluctuate • Example- sea birds,
• Example- marine sea mammals,
invertebrates, marine
fishes, reptiles
Marine invertebrates and fishes
Marine mammals and birds
 Temperature and distribution of
organism
• No strict and well defined barriers in the
oceans
• Controlled by latitudes and depth of water
• Surface water has three groups viz. warm
(> 18 0C), cold (< 5 0C) and temperate (5-
18 0C) waters
• Temperature influence physiological and
metabolic processes directly
 Salinity
• Most characteristic feature of sea. Deals with
density and specific gravity of water
• Most of the elements occurring on earth, are
encountered in oceanic water
• About 84 elements are so for known to making
sea water but only 6 (Chlorine, sodium,
magnesium, sulphate, potassium and calcium)
are common
• Important compounds are MgCl2, MgBr2,
MgSO4, CaCO3, CaSO4, K2SO4 and NaCl
 Salinity
• The existence of trace elements viz. Co,
Ni, Cd etc. are revealed from many marine
plants and organisms which are able to
concentrate
• Sulpher bacteria- sulpher
• Radiolarians- silica and strontium
• Molluscs- Nickel
• Lobsters and mussels- cobalt
 Salinity
• Algae and sponges- Iodine
• Certain sea weeds(Gracilaria and
Sargassum)- Aluminium
• Jelly fishes- Zn, Tin and Pb
• Crustacians and molluscs- copper in
haemocyanin
• Blood of ascidians and holothurians-
vanadium
 Salinity
• Calcium is needed by molluscs, corals for
making their shells
• Silica is utilized by diatoms and
radiolarians for their glossy cells
• Presence can be detected by analysing
ash of marine organism
 Origin of elements
• Majority are introduce through cosmic
sources (water is best solvent)
• Others are introduced through land
drainage
• Chemical elements are found to be
deposited at the ocean floor through the
dead decay of the marine organism and
their fresh supply from river drainage
 Major chemical constituents of
ocean
• Chloride- 19.353 g • Sodium- 10.76 g
• Sulphate- 2.511 • Magnesium- 1.287 g
• Bicarbonate- 0.142 • Calcium- 0.41 g
• Trace- 0.181 • Strontium- 0.0077
 Salinity definition
• In 1902, there was an establishment of
International Commission headed by Fork,
Knudson, and Sorenson, to define the
salinity
• Salinity is an account of water or a
measure of dissolved solids in grams in
one kg of sea water when all carbonates
are oxidized, Bromine and iodine are
replaced as chloride and all organic matter
completely oxidized
 Salinity
• Salinity is measured in the form of
chlorinity
• Chlorinity can be measured by titrating sea
water with AgNO3 using potassium
chromate as indicator
• The empirical relationship between salinity
and chlorinity is
Salinity (ppt) = 0.03+ (1.805x chlorinity)
• Here other halides are ignored
 Salinity
• The above relationship between salinity and
chlorinity is no longer strictly true
• For improvement, the International Commission
decided to prepare a primary standard of known
chlorinity called as normal water and task was
given to Hydrographical laboratory,
Copenhagen, Denmark
• Accordingly 19.4 pot normal water was prepared
and a table was prepared by Wood’s Whole
Oceanographic Institution, Masachussats,USA
consisting of relation of salinity, chlorinity and
normal water
 Factors affecting salinity
• Evaporation and precipitation are two main
factors which affect salinity very much
• It vary in fixed rate (does not go a wide
fluctuations)
• The salinity change due to mixing process
resulted due to horizontal and vertical currents
• It can be estimated by S= So + K (E- P)
• Where S is salinity of surface water, So is
salinity change due to mixing process, E is rate
of evaporation, P is rate of precipitation and K is
constant
 Evaporation and precipitation
• Total evaporation from earth is 334000 Km3/ yr
• Out of which 297000 Km3/ yr is the precipitation
received by the ocean directly in a year time
• The remaining 37000 Km3/ yr is supplied by land run
off.
• If any change in this ratio, the salinity change
drastically
• The average precipitation , falling on the year time is
99000 Km3/ yr out of which 37000 Km3/ yr comes
through ocean evaporation and 62000 Km3/ yr is
supplied through evaporation of inland resources
 Conditions required for evaporation

• If oceanic surface is warmer than the overlying

air evaporation always take’s place
• The vapour pressure initially remains greater at
the sea surface than that in the air
• The evaporation greatly facilitated in such
conditions because the turbulence of air will
developed fully owing to unstable stratification
of very lowest layer of atmosphere
 Conditions required for evaporation

• In such conditions, the heat is transferred from warm

surface water to the overlying air till the lowest layer of
atmosphere gets laden with moisture equal to the
surface water
• If the air is much colder, it gets rapidly saturated with
water vapour and thus fog or mist is form over the
water surface and when wind blows it carried upwards
• The evaporation process can be observed more
keenly near the coast but not over open ocean
because the necessary temperature gradient
differences are rapidly eliminated as the distance
increases
 Conditions required for advection
fog
• When the sea surface is colder than overlying air,
advection fog is formed
• Here water vapour is rarely produced and air does not
gets saturated with moisture
• The direction of heat transfer is reversed here and
condensation takes place in such a way that the heat
is brought to the surface oceanic water and heat
carried away from it
• The turbulence in the air is greatly reduced and the
heat transfer would stop only when vapour content of
lowest layer of atmosphere has reached the value
equivalent to heat of vapour pressure at the sea
surface
 Salinity of different oceans up to
the depth of 400- 600 m
• Mid Pacific- 35.5 ppt
• Mid Atlantic- 37.0 ppt
• North Pacific- 33.7 ppt
• North Atlantic- 35.3 pot
• Red sea- 40.0 pot
• Inshore waters of Bahamas 155.0 ppt
and West Indies (due to less depth and its enclosed
geographic structure)
• Baltic sea 8.0 to 0.0 ppt
• Gulf of Bothnia (due to narrow
connection with Atlantic
ocean and North sea)- 8.0 to 0.0 ppt
Salinity changes at different latitude
and longitude
• Salinity varies place to place due to change in
average evaporation and precipitation rates at
different latitude and longitude
• Evaporation changes due to change in solar
radiation at different latitudes
• Surface water salinity is minimum at equator
because the rate the rate of precipitation is more
than the evaporation
• The surface water salinity is maximum in the
world oceans between 20 0 N and 20 0 S
because in this part evaporation is more than
that of precipitation
Salinity changes at different latitude
and longitude
• In temperate region, the melting of ice
water get stagnated in the basin there by
reducing salinity
• At higher latitude the average salinity is
much lesser
• In Indian subcontinent, there is seasonal
fluctuation owing to influence of monsoon,
evaporation, precipitation and river
discharge
Salinity changes at different latitude
and longitude
• The salinity of Arabian sea and Bay of
Bengal is between 36.0 to 36.5 ppt and
33.0 to 34.0 ppt
• Arabian sea is connected to most arid
seas like Red sea and Parsian Gulf
• Bay of Bengal receives river discharge
from most of the Indian rivers.
 Types of waves
• Wind generating waves- formed due to
sea surface due to transfer of energy from
air to the sea surface and resultant
pressure fluctuations create vibration over
water surface to form waves during
turbulent wind conditions
• Internal waves- Indirect effect of
atmosphere, formed by bring into
interaction of water of different densities
and thermal gradients together
 Types of waves
• Catastrophic waves- in the form of storm
surges and tidal currents, atmospheric and
cosmic influences are also responsible for
creation of such waves
Ocean waves
Wave crest and trough
 Waves
• Wave length- The horizontal distance between
two successive crest or trough (L)
• The time required for two successive crests or
two successive troughs to pass a fixed point in
space is called the period T
• Wave height (H) is the vertical distance
between crest and succeeding trough
 Waves
• Steepness is the wave height divided by
the wave length (H/L)- when wave
steepness exceeds 1/7, wave become
unstable and begin to break by raveling of
over steepened crests
• The angle at the crest must be 1200 or
greater for the wave to remain stable
 Characteristic of wave
• A wave transfers a disturbance from one
part of a material to another
• The disturbance is propagated through the
material without any substantial overall
motion of material itself
• The disturbance is propagated without any
significant distortion of the wave form
• The disturbance appears to be propagated
with constant speed
 Characteristic of wave
• When small waves move through deep water,
individual bits of water move in circular orbits
which are vertical and nearly closed
• The water moves forward as crest passes, then
vertically, and finally backward as the trough
passes
• After each wave has passed, the water parcel
is found nearly in its original position but there
is some slight net movement of the water
 Wave forms
• All waves are progressive waves
• Body waves travel through materials
• Surface waves occur at the interface
between two bodies of fluid (capillary and
gravity waves)
• Sine waves- crest and trough tend to be
rounded and may be approximated
• Trochoid waves- crest is more sharply
pointed
 Deep water waves
• In the deeper water where depth is greater
than L/2, water parcel move in nearly
stationary circular orbits, are known as deep
water waves. The diameter is equal to wave
height. It decreases to one- half the wave
height at a depth of L/9 and is nearly 0 at
the depth of L/2
 Formation of waves
• Involve two forces- disturbance and still
water
• Disturbing waves are wind generating
waves, tides, tsunamis etc. these are
also called as forced waves
• Free waves move independently e.g.
explosion generated wave
 Formation of waves
• Once a wave has formed , restoring forces act
to restore the equilibrium.
• For smallest wave (L 1.7 cm, TP < 0.1 sec.) the
dominant restoring force is surface tension
• For waves with periods between 1 and 5 min.,
gravity is the restoring force
• The waves whose period is more than 5 min.,
gravity and coriolis forces are the restoring
forces
 Formation of waves
• Waves transmit energy in two forms- potential
and kinetic energy
• The total energy in a wave is proportional to
the square of the wave height
• 2 m high wave has 1200 cal/m2, 4 m has 4800
cal/m2
• Nearly all the wave energy is dissipated as heat
when wave strikes the coast
 TSUNAMI
• These are long wavelength, shallow water progressive
waves caused by rapid displacement of ocean water
• Displacement is caused by sudden vertical movement
of the earth along a fault line, also by landslides,
iceberg falling and volcanic eruptions
• These are shallow and deep water waves (> ½ of the
wavelength)
• Speed will be calculated as c= √gd
• When it reaches shore, its wavelength and velocity
decreases, increases wave height while period remain
constant
 Currents
• Large scale water movement occurring in the ocean
and carrying the water everywhere in the ocean
• Winds and unequal heating and cooling are two forces
for causing major currents
• It contribute to heat transfer from tropics to poles and
from poles to tropic thereby partially equalizing earth
surface temperature
• Around equator, the surface water carry warm water to
the region of higher latitudes of both the hemisphere
respectively
 Ocean wise warm and cold water
currents
• North Atlantic
– Warmwater currents
• North equatorial current after hitting the gulf of Mexico
takes the water eastward as Gulf stream
• Some of the water of gulf stream is taken to the
higher latitude in Arctic and surplus water return back
to equator from Canary currents
– Coldwater currents
• From Arctic, the coldwater is brought as Labrador and
East green land currents to the lower latitudes
 Ocean wise warm and cold water
currents
• South Atlantic
– Warmwater currents
• South equatorial currents bring warm water in Brazil
region as Brazil currents
• Brazil current brings warm water to Antarctic and
water return to the West Africa coast through Bengula
currents
– Coldwater currents
• From Antarctic region, the Falkland current and West
wind drift to lower latitude
 Ocean wise warm and cold water
currents
• North Pacific
– Warm water currents
• North Pacific current to higher latitude and surplus
water as California current
• Through Kuroshio current from Japan region,
warm water to higher latitude
– Cold water currents
• Oyashio, Sub Arctic and Alaska currents from
Arctic to low latitudes
 Ocean wise warm and cold water
currents
• South Pacific
– Warm water currents
• South Equatorial currents, Peru currents and East
Australian current
– Cold water currents
• West wind drift and West Australian currents
• Seasonal currents of North Indian region
– During summer the continental Asia is greatly
warmed up, the continental air rises and
draws air from the ocean towards land
 Seasonal currents of North Indian
region
• The South West monsoon current
replaces North Equatorial currents
• In winter just reverse takes place. The
North Equatorial current reappear and
may cause cyclone
 Ekman’s spiral
• Current resulting from steady wind blowing across an
ocean having unlimited depth and uniform viscosity
causing spiral
• Created due to rotation of earth from west to east
• The surface layer from NH to drift at right angle between
450 to 900 all along the NH
• Water at successive depth would drift in directions more
to the right until such time that the water would have to
face directions opposite to the wind
• Speed decreases with depth through out the spiral
• The net water transport is 900 to right angle of the wind
in NH
 CO2
• Minor constituent of atmosphere and equilibrium
concentration in pure water is small
• Derived from the atmosphere, respiration of animals and
plants, bacterial decomposition of organic matter,
inflowing ground waters which seep into the ponds, lakes
and streams and from within the water itself in
combination with other substances
• Solubility of CO2 is 30 times that of oxygen. It dissolves in
water to produce H2CO3 which dissociates into various
fractions depending upon the pH
• Solubility of CO2 is decreases with increase of
temperature
• 00 C- 1.1 mg/l
• 100 C- 0.76 mg/l
• 200 C- 0.56 mg/l
• 300 C- 0.42 mg/l
 CO2
• Reduction of CO2 by photosynthesis, marl
forming organism, agitation of water,
evaporation and bubble formation
• is not appreciably toxic to fish
 Carbon dioxide
• At pH 6 to 8, bicarbonate is the most abundant
carbon fraction and the rate limiting step from
bicarbonate to CO2 is dehydration of the
carbonic acid intermediate
• When demand for is CO2 high, part of CaCO3
occurs, especially in hard water lakes
• Temp. control the CO2 level, other factors are
photosynthesis by plants, respiration of all
organisms, aeration of the water, presence of
other gases and any chemical reaction that may
occur
 P4 and N2 cycles in ocean
• In shallow waters nutrients recycle fairly quickly
• Seasonal variation in phosphorus cycle
• During winter, when phytoplankton populations
are small, dissolved inorganic phosphorus
concentrations are as high as 0.002 mg/l or
more
• In spring, P4 level drop sharply. When nutrient
level drop off, organisms die and release
nutrients or in some cases a zooplankton bloom
results from abundance of plant food and the
animals release nutrients during metabolism
 P4 and N2 cycles in ocean
• Dissolved and particulate organic phosphorus
released by phytoplankton and animals is
utilized by bacteria and certain heterotrophic
phytoplankton
• N2 cycle is more slowly because energy is
required to fix it in organic form, reduce it, and
finally to oxidize it back to N2
• Zooplankton facilitate this process by releasing
soluble organic N2 compounds such as urea
and NH3 which can be taken up by
phytoplankton
 Nitrogen
• Occurs in combination with other elements such
as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate or free form
• Vital for all organisms, helps to synthesize
complex protein molecules that affect growth
and reproduction
• They regularly remove complex nitrogen
compounds as excreta
• On the death, complex nitrogenous compounds
decomposed into simpler chemical compounds
by bacteria
 Nitrogen
• There are two forms of nitrogen elemental
or uncombined and inorganic/ organic
compounds
• Elemental nitrogen come from atmosphere
• Solubility of nitrogen varies with
temperature and super saturation cause
gas bubble disease
• Inorganic nitrogen present in the form of
NH3, NO2 and NO3
 Nitrogen
• Organic nitrogen constitute about 50% of
total. Most of it is composed as amino
acid, polypeptides and proteins
• Process involve in N2 cycle are
nitrification, denitrification and
ammonification
Nitrogen cycle
Phosphorus cycle
 Silica
• Occurs mainly as orthosilicate in an
undissociated condition at the normally
encountered pH values
• Most abundant in sedimentary rocks and
therefore, occurs generally in higher
concentrations in such regions
• Silica is utilized most by diatoms and a
major
Silica cycle
TS diagram