How will global warming affect the amount of salt held in the oceans?
The amount of salt held in the ocean is more a factor of how much erosion and runoff is taking place on land (as that’s where the salt in the ocean originated from). In theory, one would think that global warming should increase the amount of salt in the ocean, as most people feel that it would cause there to be more rain, which would cause there to be more runoff. However, if we follow the warming scenario, you also have the rapid melting of sea ice, and glacial ice, which adds a large amount of fresh water to the oceans. In this case you would probably see the amount of salt in the oceans increasing, but the amount of fresh water being added in as well would so increase the overall volume of the ocean that the amount of salt as a percentage would probably decrease. I think global cooling would have more of an impact on the amount of salt. Sea levels would fall, ie. less water in the ocean, but there’s not really a mechanism for removing the salt, so the overall salinity would increas
