Pycnocline

A pycnocline is the cline or layer where a density gradient / is greatest within a body of water. An ocean current is generated by the forces such(a) as breaking waves, temperature and salinity differences, wind, Coriolis effect, & tides caused by the gravitational pull of celestial bodies. In addition, the physical properties in a pycnocline driven by density gradients also affect the flows and vertical profiles in the ocean. These reorganize can be connected to the transport of heat, salt, and nutrients through the ocean, and the pycnocline diffusion controls upwelling.

Below the mixed layer, adensity gradient or pycnocline separates the upper and lower water, hindering vertical transport. This separation has important biological effects on the ocean and the marine well organisms. However, vertical mixing across a pycnocline is aphenomenon in oceans, and occurs through shear-produced turbulence. such(a) mixing plays a key role in the transport of nutrients.

Physical function

Turbulent mixing offered by winds and waves transfers heat downward from the surface. In low and mid-latitudes, this creates a surface-mixed layer of water of near uniform temperature which may be a few meters deep to several hundred meters deep. Below this mixed layer, at depths of 200–300 m in the open ocean, the temperature begins to decrease rapidly down to about 1000 m. The water layer within which the temperature gradient is steepest is requested as the permanent thermocline. The temperature difference through this layer may be as large as 20℃, depending on latitude. The permanent thermocline coincides with a conform in water density between the warmer, low-density surface waters and the underlying cold dense bottom waters. The region of rapid density modify is requested as the pycnocline, and it acts as a barrier to vertical water circulation; thus it also affects the vertical distribution ofchemicals which play a role in the biology of the seas. The sharp gradients in temperature and density also may act as a restriction to vertical movements of animals.