Ocean Chemistry

Ocean water is much more than just water and salt; it is home to a number of chemicals and nutrients. Most of them combine to make the salt in the water. Others are present in smaller amounts to maintain the aquatic life. All of them are necessary, but in the right proportions.

A breakdown of the chemical makeup of ocean water would look like this:

Major Chemicals

• Sodium· Magnesium· Calcium· Potassium· Chlorine· Sulfate · Bicarbonate· Strontium· Bromine· Boric Acid· Fluorine

Other Chemicals

• Carbonic acid (undergoes a chemical reaction to form 2 chemicals which regulate the pH and the carbon dioxide levels of the ocean)
  
• Nitrate and Phosphate (maintain ocean life)
  
• Iron and Silica (limit the amount of the previous two nutrients)

Problems occur when one or more of these chemicals are out of balance with the others or in higher quantities than they are naturally. Chemical imbalance is often created by nutrient loading, caused when a foreign substance is added to a part of the ocean's watershed.

Oceans can be damaged by two types of pollution:

• point source and
  
• nonpoint source.