Body of water

A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). In some cases, salt lakes have a higher concentration of salt than sea water; such lakes can also be termed hypersaline lake, and may also be pink lakes on account of their color. An alkalic salt lake that has a high content of carbonate is sometimes termed a soda lake.

Salt lakes are classified according to salinity levels. The formation of these lakes is influenced by processes such as evaporation and deposition. Salt lakes face serious conservation challenges due to climate change, pollution and water diversion.

In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water.

Different structures are referred to as banks in different fields of geography.

A ship is a large watercraft designed for travel across the surface of a body of water, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized tasks such as warfare, oceanography and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce.

The word ship has meant, depending on era and context, either simply a large vessel or specifically a full-rigged ship with three or more masts, each of which is square rigged.

A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.

Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recreational. Fishing has existed as a means of obtaining food since the Mesolithic period.

Lake Kasumigaura (霞ヶ浦, Kasumigaura) is the second-largest lake in Japan, located 60 km to the north-east of Tokyo.

In a narrower sense and officially, Lake Kasumigaura refers to a waterbody with an area of 167.63 km. In a wider sense, Lake Kasumigaura can also refer to a group of contiguous lakes, which includes Lake Kasumigaura proper, hereby referred to as Nishiura (西浦), and two smaller lakes, Kitaura (北浦; 35.16 km ) and Sotonasakaura (外浪逆浦; 5.85 km ), and also encompasses the rivers connecting them. In this case the total area is 220 km.

An ancient lake is a lake that has consistently carried water for more than one million years. Twelve of the 20 ancient lakes have existed for more than 2.6 million years, the full Quaternary period. Ancient lakes continue to persist due to plate tectonics in an active rift zone. This active rift zone creates lakes that are extremely deep and difficult to naturally fill with sediment. Due to the prolonged life of ancient lakes, they serve as models for isolated evolutionary traits and speciation. Most of the world's bodies of water are less than 18,000 years old. There are only 20 ancient lakes over 1 million years old.

Lake Baikal is often considered the oldest, as clear evidence shows that it is 25–30 million years old. Lake Zaysan may be even older, of Cretaceous origin and at least 66 million years old (most likely around 70 million years), but its exact age is controversial and labeled with some uncertainty. Another contender for oldest is Lake Maracaibo, estimated to be 20–36 million years old. In ancient times it was indisputably a true lake, but today it is saline and directly connected to the sea, leading many to consider it a large lagoon or bay.

Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorological variables that are commonly measured are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, and precipitation. In a broader sense, climate is the state of the components of the climate system, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere and the interactions between them. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, longitude, terrain, altitude, land use and nearby water bodies and their currents.

Climates can be classified according to the average and typical variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. The most widely used classification scheme is the Köppen climate classification. The Thornthwaite system, in use since 1948, incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it. The major classifications in Thornthwaite's climate classification are microthermal, mesothermal, and megathermal. Finally, the Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region.

Aquatic mammals and semiaquatic mammals are a diverse group of mammals that dwell partly or entirely in bodies of water. They include the various marine mammals who dwell in oceans, as well as various freshwater species, such as the European otter. They are not a taxon and are not unified by any distinct biological grouping, but rather their dependence on and integral relation to aquatic ecosystems. The level of dependence on aquatic life varies greatly among species. Among freshwater taxa, the Amazonian manatee and river dolphins are completely aquatic and fully dependent on aquatic ecosystems. Semiaquatic freshwater taxa include the Baikal seal, which feeds underwater but rests, molts, and breeds on land; and the capybara and hippopotamus which are able to venture in and out of water in search of food.

Mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle vary considerably between species. River dolphins and manatees are both fully aquatic and therefore are completely tethered to a life in the water. Seals are semiaquatic; they spend the majority of their time in the water, but need to return to land for important activities such as mating, breeding and molting. In contrast, many other aquatic mammals, such as hippopotamus, capybara, and water shrews, are much less adapted to aquatic living. Likewise, their diet ranges considerably as well, anywhere from aquatic plants and leaves to small fish and crustaceans. They play major roles in maintaining aquatic ecosystems, beavers especially.

In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or above it, which poses a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, gravelbars, or bars. Two or more shoals that are either separated by shared troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex.

The term shoal is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar to, or quite different from, how it is used in geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic literature. Sometimes, the term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a stream, lake, sea, or other body of water; a rocky area on the seafloor within an area mapped for navigation purposes; or a growth of vegetation on the bottom of a deep lake, that occurs at any depth, or is used as a verb for the process of proceeding from a greater to a lesser depth of water.

The Sulu Sea (Filipino: Dagat Sulu; Tausug: Dagat sin Sūg; Malay: Laut Sulu; Spanish: Mar de Joló) is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast.

The Sulu Sea contains a number of islands. The Cuyo Islands and the Cagayan Islands are part of the province of Palawan whereas Mapun and the Turtle Islands are part of the province of Tawi-Tawi. Sulu Sea is also where the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, one of the World Heritage Sites is located.