The Most Complete Cycle of Brackish Water

Have you all heard about brackish water? Or maybe you have seen it in person? If whatever crossed your mind about the existence of brackish water? Well my friend, on this opportunity, the author will review it to add your insight into what brackish water is and about the cycle of the formation of brackish water.

Brackish water is a mixture of fresh water and sea water (salt water). If the salt content contained in one liter of water is between 0.5 to 30 grams, then this water is categorized as a type of brackish water. If it’s above this number, then it is included in the category of saltwater or sea water. In general, brackish water is found in estuary areas which usually have their own biodiversity. The type of fish that lives in brackish water is fish that we often consume, which is milk fish.

Brackish water ecosystem is a zone of transition of fresh water with sea water, where organisms that grow in it are dominated by mangrove vegetation or the so-called mangroves. The function of mangrove forests is benefitial for the surrounding environment.

The cycle of the formation of brackish water is due to the existence of a semi-closed water body that is directly related to the open sea which is affected by tides, where seawater mixes with freshwater originating from land water discharge. Well, if the water content from the combination of freshwater and seawater tends to be more dominant than the sea (salt water), then brackish water will be created.

The type of land water that mixes directly with sea water which will later affect the cycle of the formation of brackish water is as follows:

The estuary of river water
Gulf Coast
Tidal swamp
The water body at the beach

This type of fresh water will later affect the cycle of the formation of brackish water if it’s mixed with seawater (salt water). The characteristics of brackish water are as follows:

Aquatic systems with a calm flow.
Residence time is quite old.
The presence of temperature or light stratification.
Dissolved oxygen is lower than flowing water.
There is no special adaptation of each inhabiting organisms in the brackish water .

As mentioned above, we can conclude that temperature is a controlling factor that influences metabolic activities in the food chain that occur in the balance of the brackish water ecosystem. Light is considered an abiotic factor that greatly determines the primary productivity rate of brackish water.

Those are the information that I can share about the cycle of brackish water formation in this opportunity. Hopefully, we can meet in the next article with a discussion that is no less interesting.

Zidni