Design and trial experiments on the simulationsystem for plants exposed to long-term shallow water waves

In view of the difficulty of the traditional flume wave maker to meet the experimental requirement of studying physiological and biochemical responses of plants to long-term wave exposure, a long-term shallow water wave environmental simulator using crank-yoke mechanism was built in the laboratory in this study, to be used for controlled experiments to explore the physiological and biochemical responsesof saltmarsh plants to long-term wave exposure. Three streamlined containers with samples of salt marsh plants were partially submerged in a test tank, and under took horizontal sinusoidal motion imposed by a crank-yoke mechanism to mimic plants exposed to shallow water waves. The results of the trial experiments suggested that the developed experimental system is of high accuracy and stability, which provides a effective tool for experimental studies on physiological and biochemical responsesof salt-marsh plants exposed to long-term shallow water waves.