It's another quiet day at WUWT. Anthony Watts posted a press release about a paper in the journal, Applications in Plant Sciences.
The paper was describing a "microcosm unit with tidal simulation", which was built with plastic buckets, aquarium tubing, dosing pumps and timers. It cost quite a bit less than other simulators, took up around half the space, could be constructed practically anywhere and is a clever low tech solution that does the job.
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| Fig 1. Tidal simulator microcosm units consisted of one 18.9-L bucket containing a Spartina alterniflora sward connected to a second reservoir bucket (with a lid to prevent evaporation) by aquarium tubing attached to two water-lifting pumps. Pump 1 transferred water from the reservoir into the microcosm, and pump 2 transferred the water from the microcosm back into the reservoir (A). Units were connected to an outdoor timer (3) programmed to create tidal exchange every 6 h (B), and aquarium tubing extended from pumps to the bottom of both the microcosm and reservoir buckets to ensure complete transfer of water between them (C). Source: MacTavish and Cohen 2014 |
The paper was written by researchers at Georgia Southern University, Rachel MacTavish and Risa Cohen. The paper lists the many benefits (my paras):
Simple construction, low cost, and versatility are major advantages of this tidal simulator over existing systems. Using materials found at hardware and aquarium retailers, each tidal simulation unit was constructed for less than US$27 in approximately 20 min, thus a large number of tidal simulator units can be set up within several days, unlike other large tidal simulation systems that use expensive custom tanks or facilities and can take months to set up. (Gleason et al., 1981; Spaulding and Hester, 2007; Cohen et al., 2009). Each unit also only takes up 0.18 m2 (0.3 × 0.6 m), allowing for high levels of experimental replication in a small space.
Furthermore, S. alterniflora growth in the microcosm tidal simulation system was similar to that of plants exposed to natural tidal regimes; no differences in plant height, stem density, or above- and belowground biomass occurred between tidal treatments, providing ecological relevance to experiments conducted using the simulators.
