Systems of Classification of Water Bodies Based Upon Salinity
| Thalassic series |
| >300 |
| hyperhaline |
| 60–80 |
| metahaline |
| 40 |
| mixoeuhaline |
| 30 |
| polyhaline |
| 18 |
| mesohaline |
| 5 |
| oligohaline |
| 0.5 |
Marine waters are those of the ocean, another term for which is euhaline seas. The salinity of euhaline seas is 30 to 35. Brackish seas or waters have salinity in the range of 0.5 to 29 and metahaline seas from 36 to 40. These waters are all regarded as thalassic because their salinity is derived from the ocean and defined as homoiohaline if salinity does not vary much over time (essentially constant). The table on the right, modified from Por (1972), follows the "Venice system" (1959).
In contrast to homoiohaline environments are certain poikilohaline environments (which may also be thallassic) in which the salinity variation is biologically significant. Poikilohaline water salinities may range anywhere from 0.5 to greater than 300. The important characteristic is that these waters tend to vary in salinity over some biologically meaningful range seasonally or on some other roughly comparable time scale. Put simply, these are bodies of water with quite variable salinity.
Highly saline water, from which salts crystallize (or are about to), is referred to as brine.
Read more about this topic: Salinity
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