Editing Salinity (section)

==Classification of water bodies based upon salinity==
<!--Before changing this cumbersome title, please ensure you modify the pages Hypersaline, Burgsvik beds, and anything else linking directly to this section-->
{| align=right style="text-align:center; margin-right:auto;"
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |'''Thalassic series'''
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| width=150px bgcolor=lightgrey| > 300 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |hyperhaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 60–80 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |metahaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 40 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |mixoeuhaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 30 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |polyhaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 18 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |mesohaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 5 ‰
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| bgcolor=lightgrey |oligohaline
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| bgcolor=lightgrey| 0.5 ‰
|}
Marine waters are those of the ocean, another term for which is ''euhaline seas''. The salinity of euhaline seas is 30 to 35 ‰. ''Brackish seas'' or waters have salinity in the range of 0.5 to 29 ‰ and ''metahaline seas'' from 36 to 40 ‰. These waters are all regarded as ''thalassic'' because their salinity is derived from the ocean and defined as ''homoiohaline'' if salinity does not vary much over time (essentially constant). The table on the right, modified from Por (1972),<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF00373210|title=Hydrobiological notes on the high-salinity waters of the Sinai Peninsula|year=1972|last1=Por|first1=F. D.|journal=Marine Biology|volume=14|pages=111–119|issue=2|bibcode=1972MarBi..14..111P |s2cid=86601297}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Salinity {{!}} Freshwater Inflows|url=https://www.freshwaterinflow.org/salinity|access-date=2020-10-25|website=www.freshwaterinflow.org}}</ref> follows the "Venice system" (1959).<ref>Venice system (1959). The final resolution of the symposium on the classification of brackish waters. ''Archo Oceanogr. Limnol.'', 11 (suppl): 243–248.</ref>

In contrast to homoiohaline environments are certain ''poikilohaline'' environments (which may also be ''thalassic'') in which the salinity variation is biologically significant.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Dahl, E. |year=1956|title=Ecological salinity boundaries in poikilohaline waters|journal=Oikos|volume=7|pages=1–21|doi=10.2307/3564981|issue=1|jstor=3564981|bibcode=1956Oikos...7....1D }}</ref> ''Poikilohaline'' water salinities may range anywhere from 0.5 to greater than 300 ‰. The important characteristic is that these waters tend to vary in salinity over some biologically meaningful range seasonally or on some other roughly comparable time scale. Put simply, these are bodies of water with quite variable salinity.

Highly saline water, from which salts crystallize (or are about to), is referred to as [[brine]].