Unique Nature of Pure Water
What type of bond forms between two water molecules?
What is a hydrogen bond?
What is the average salinity of ocean water?
What is 35 parts per thousand (ppt)?
What two ions make up most of the dissolved salts in seawater?
What are chloride and sodium ions?
What causes ocean acidification?
What is carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolving into seawater?
What is the main greenhouse gas involved in the carbon cycle?
What is carbon dioxide
Why is water considered a polar molecule?
What is because water has a positive and negative end, making it a polar molecule?
How does temperature affect the density of seawater?
What is colder water is denser, and warmer water is less dense?
What is the pH range of average ocean water?
What is between 7.8 and 8.3, slightly basic?
What happens to pH levels as ocean acidification increases?
What is the pH of seawater decreases, making it more acidic?
Name one way carbon enters the ocean
What is carbon enters the ocean when atmospheric CO₂ dissolves into surface water?
How does hydrogen bonding affect water’s boiling point?
What is hydrogen bonding increases the boiling point because it takes more energy to break the bonds?
Why is salinity higher in areas with high evaporation rates?
What is evaporation removes freshwater, leaving salts behind and raising salinity?
How does the ocean maintain chemical equilibrium through the “constant proportions principle”?
What is the ratio of major ions stays constant even when salinity changes?
How does increased CO₂ in seawater affect shell-building organisms?
What is less carbonate available makes it harder for organisms to build shells or skeletons?
Explain how photosynthesis and respiration move carbon through the biosphere
What is photosynthesis removes CO₂ from the air, and respiration releases it back?
Why does ice float on liquid water?
What is because ice is less dense than liquid water due to its open crystal structure?
How do temperature and salinity together determine water column stratification?
What is warm, less salty water stays on top, and cold, salty water sinks, creating density layers?
Describe how gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve differently in seawater.
What is carbon dioxide dissolves more easily than oxygen because it reacts with water to form carbonic acid?
Explain how ocean acidification impacts coral reefs.
What is acidification weakens coral skeletons and slows reef growth?
How does the ocean act as a carbon sink?
What is the ocean stores more carbon than the atmosphere, acting as a carbon sink?
Explain how water’s specific heat capacity influences Earth’s climate
What is water’s high specific heat helps regulate Earth’s temperature by absorbing and releasing heat slowly?
Explain why thermoclines form in some parts of the ocean but not others.
What is thermoclines form where surface water is warm and deep water is cold, such as in tropical regions?
Explain how changes in temperature and pressure affect gas solubility in seawater.
What is gases dissolve better in cold, high-pressure water and less in warm, shallow water?
Describe how ocean acidification disrupts the marine food web.
What is acidification harms plankton and shellfish, disrupting the entire food web?
Describe the biological pump and its role in long-term carbon storage.
What is the biological pump moves carbon from the surface to the deep ocean through sinking organic matter?