Chemoclines

The chemocline is the sudden transition between water layers with different levels of dissolved solids in meromictic lakes or in seas and brackish water zones ( thermocline ). The chemocline belongs to the pycnoclines .

In meromictic lakes it arises from incomplete mixing of the water body, so that higher levels of degradation products from the sunken biomass residues can accumulate in a deep layer .

In the western part of the Baltic Sea , there is a pronounced chemocline in the deeper areas, because highly saline water from the North Sea subverts the brackish water of the Baltic Sea and collects there in the depressions.

literature

• Jürgen Schwoerbel: Introduction to Limnology. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Jena 1993.