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Salinity
Proportion of salt dissolved in water / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salinity (/səˈlɪnɪti/) is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal to ‰).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/WOA09_sea-surf_SAL_AYool.png/640px-WOA09_sea-surf_SAL_AYool.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/IAPSO_Standard_Seawater.jpg/640px-IAPSO_Standard_Seawater.jpg)
Salinity is an important factor in determining many aspects of the chemistry of natural waters and of biological processes within it, and is a thermodynamic state variable that, along with temperature and pressure, governs physical characteristics like the density and heat capacity of the water.
A contour line of constant salinity is called an isohaline, or sometimes isohale.