Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 317-330 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Limnology and Oceanography: Methods |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:E. Infantes will like to thank FORMAS grant Dnr. 231-2014-735 and funds provided by the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg. Thanks to the staff of Kristineberg Research Station for providing their great facilities. The idea to develop the wave-flume/wave-mesocosm was initiated by T. J. Bouma at NIOZ. We gratefully acknowledge Bert Sinke for making the original flume design and the NMF-team at NIOZ who constructed the flume and Selwyn Hoeks for the flume diagrams. For question on having a wave-mesocosm to be built at NIOZ, contact [email protected].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
Funding
E. Infantes will like to thank FORMAS grant Dnr. 231-2014-735 and funds provided by the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg. Thanks to the staff of Kristineberg Research Station for providing their great facilities. The idea to develop the wave-flume/wave-mesocosm was initiated by T. J. Bouma at NIOZ. We gratefully acknowledge Bert Sinke for making the original flume design and the NMF-team at NIOZ who constructed the flume and Selwyn Hoeks for the flume diagrams. For question on having a wave-mesocosm to be built at NIOZ, contact [email protected].