| …covers 71% of the earth´s surface and contains 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water, or 97% of all water on earth. There are marine sediments that are at least 3.6 billion years old. The waters of the seas and oceans are constantly moving, influenced by warmth from the sun, the earth´s rotation and the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. The Gulf Stream, for example, transports 55 million cubic metres of water per second. This helps to create an exchange between cold water at the poles and warm water at the equator, vital to climate and weather conditions over the globe. | Life on earth started in the sea – bacterias and single-celled algae using sunlight to transform seawater chemicals into complex carbon molecules, very like the micro-plankton of today. Marine zones rich in plankton provide the basis for a marine food-chain, in the same way that plant-life on land is necessary for the survival of land animals. Life in the sea is also similar to that on earth in that it is unevenly distributed according to location: large areas of the sea bottom are covered by sand, and, like the deserts on earth, are less congenial to life. The ”rain forests” of the sea – wetlands (marshes and swamps), estuaries and coral reefs are amongst the richest biotopes on the globe.
Our re-creation of the Tropical Sea has a salt level of 35 parts per thousand, and a temperature of 28°C. Using denitrification filter-techniques we are able to keep sharks together with shellfish and living corals. |