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  2. Ocean current - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current

    An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. [1]

  3. Marine biogeochemical cycles - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_biogeochemical_cycles

    Phosphorus is used to make nucleic acids and the phospholipids that comprise biological membranes. Sulfur is critical to the three-dimensional shape of proteins. The cycling of these elements is interconnected. For example, the movement of water is critical for leaching sulfur and phosphorus into rivers which can then flow into oceans.

  4. Physical oceanography - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_oceanography

    For example, the majority of the warm water movement in the south Atlantic is thought to have originated in the Indian Ocean. [10] Another example of advection is the nonequatorial Pacific heating which results from subsurface processes related to atmospheric anticlines. [11] Recent warming observations of Antarctic bottom water in the Southern ...

  5. Ocean dynamics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_dynamics

    The deep ocean is both cold and dark with generally weak velocities (although limited areas of the deep ocean are known to have significant recirculations). The deep ocean is supplied with water from the upper ocean in only a few limited geographical regions: the subpolar North Atlantic and several sinking regions around the Antarctic. Because ...

  6. Water cycle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle

    The ocean holds "97% of the total water on the planet; 78% of global precipitation occurs over the ocean, and it is the source of 86% of global evaporation". [ 2 ] Processes leading to movements and phase changes in water

  7. Thermohaline circulation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermohaline_circulation

    As the deep waters sink into the ocean basins, they displace the older deep-water masses, which gradually become less dense due to continued ocean mixing. Thus, some water is rising, in what is known as upwelling. Its speeds are very slow even compared to the movement of the bottom water masses.

  8. Downwelling - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downwelling

    Buoyancy-forced downwelling, often termed convection, is the deepening of a water parcel due to a change in the density of that parcel.Density changes in the surface ocean are primarily the result of evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, or the introduction and mixing of an alternate water or salinity source, such as river input or brine rejection.

  9. Diel vertical migration - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diel_vertical_migration

    Diel vertical migration (DVM), also known as diurnal vertical migration, is a pattern of movement used by some organisms, such as copepods, living in the ocean and in lakes. The adjective "diel" ( IPA : / ˈ d aɪ . ə l / , / ˈ d iː . əl / ) comes from Latin : diēs , lit.