On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/l, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximately 35 grams (1.2 oz) of dissolved salts (predominantly sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) ions) (wikipedia, 2022).
Salinity influences the water's freezing point which decreases as salt concentration increases. The density of water also varies according to it's salinity. So this parameters influences stratification and species distribution.
In the MSP Challenge, the salinity data layer is static and does not influence any of the models.
Return to environmental conditions.
Not applicable.
This layer is not available in the North Sea Edition.
In this tab you can see the information that applies concretely to the Baltic Sea edition of the MSP Challenge.
PSU stands for Practical Salinity Unit, which is a unit based on the properties of sea water conductivity. It is equivalent to per thousand or to g/kg (ifremer, accessed on 2022-02-08).
BALANCE project, retrieved from HELCOM, acessed on 2018-06-11
Modelled bottom salinity (BALANCE)
"This dataset was produced by NERI, Denmark, for the BSR INTERREG IIIB project BALANCE. Due to the stratification in the Baltic Sea it was decided to use bottom salinity for the development of the benthic marine landscapes and difference in surface to bottom salinity for the pelagic landscapes. The following 6 categories of annual mean salinity were applied delineating the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea into regions with differences in salinity regime (fig. 15): I. Oligohaline I (< 5psu). II. Oligohaline II (5 - 7.5psu). III. Mesohaline I (7.5 - 11psu). IV. Mesohaline II (11 - 18psu). V. Polyhaline (18 - 30psu). VI. Euhaline (>30psu)."
Information retrieved from HELCOM's metadata page for this resource (2021-07-20).
Not available. Publication date: 2008-01-01
Integrated directly in the platform.
The Salinity layer in the Western Baltic Sea Edition remains consistent with that featured in the Baltic Sea edition.
This layer is not available in the Clyde Marine Region Edition.
This layer is not available in the Adriatic Sea Edition.
This layer is not present in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Co-funded by the European Union.