Wave flume facilities that are primarily designed for engineering studies are often complex and expensive to operate, and hence not ideal for long-term replicated experiments as commonly used in biology. This study describes a low-cost small wave flume that can be used for biological purposes using fresh- or seawater with or without sediment. The wave flume can be used as a mesocosm to study interactions between wave hydrodynamics and benthic organisms in aquatic ecosystems. The low-costs wave maker (< 2000 USD) allows for experimental setups which can be easily replicated and used for longer term studies; hence the term wave mesocosm. Waves were generated with a pneumatic piston and wave heights ranged between 3 and 6 cm. Maximum orbital flow velocities ranged between 10 and 50 cm s⁻¹ representing shallow coastal areas with a short fetch. The system can generate both regular waves (i.e., the wave period and orbital velocity remains constant), using a wave absorber, and irregular waves (i.e., varying wave period and orbital velocity) using a fast push and slow pull motion of the wave paddle. This wave mesocosm system is particularly useful in biogeomorphology to quantify interactions between organisms, sediment, and hydrodynamics and for aquatic ecologist aiming to simulate realistic bed shear stress where short- and long-term experiments (weeks–months) can be replicated.

中文翻译：

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在低成本的波浪中观中实现逼真的波浪气候：实验生态学和生物地貌学的新工具

主要用于工程研究的波浪槽设施通常很复杂且操作昂贵，因此对于生物学中常用的长期重复实验而言并不理想。这项研究描述了一种低成本的小波浪水槽，可以使用淡水或海水（有或没有沉积物）将其用于生物目的。波浪槽可以用作介观研究水生生态系统中波浪水动力与底栖生物之间相互作用的一种方法。低成本造波机（<2000美元）允许进行实验设置，可以轻松复制并用于长期研究；因此，术语“波动介观”。用气动活塞产生波，波高在3至6厘米之间。最大轨道流速在10至50 cm s ^-1之间代表浅海沿岸地区，取货时间短。该系统既可以使用波吸收器生成规则波（即，波周期和轨道速度保持恒定），又可以使用波桨的快推和慢速拉动来生成不规则波（即，变化的波周期和轨道速度） 。这种波动的中观系统在生物地貌学中特别有用，它可以量化生物体，沉积物和水动力之间的相互作用，对于水生生态学家来说，其目的是模拟现实的床层剪切应力，从而可以重复进行短期和长期实验（数周至数月）。