Three Types of Water
By: Andrew Gray
Water Salinitiy
Brackish
0.05-3% (Salinity)
Brackish water is right in the middle of fresh water and salt water. This type of water contains more salt than fresh water but less than salt water. Brackish water usually results from mixing fresh water with salt water. Brackish water can be created by ceratin human projects. One example is when we flood coastal marshlands to create these types of water pools. There are four types of Brackish water habitats.
Estuaries- where freshwater meets salt water (river empying into the sea)
Mangroves- moangrove swamps are the breeding ground to many different types of fish
Brackish Seas/Lakes- One example is the Baltic Sea where the water comes from the sea and many freshwater rivers that flow into it, these rivers are what makes the water brackish
Brackish Marsh- this is where fresh water flows into a salt marsh
Salt
3-5% (Salinity)
This is the most abundant type of water covering 70% of the Earth's surface. Covering such a large portion of the Earth, this type of water has a very diverse amount of organisms living in it. This ecosystem is so vast, that at different depths you'll find different types of biological life living on completely different food sources. These ecosytems are very crucial to us and other animals becasue they produce nearly 50% of the Earth's oxygen.
Fresh
<0.05% (Salinity)
Unlike salt water, freshwater covers only 3% of the Earth's surface. 99% of all freshwater is eaither in the form of ice or in an aquifer. There are three groups that freshwater is divided into: Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, and Wetlands. These are all crucial because they supply us with over half of our drinking water. Between these groups there are over 700 species of creatures living in a freshwater biome, creating a lot of predator-prey relationships.