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Turbulence is one of the ubiquitous aspects of aquatic systems and affects many physical and biological processes. Based on direct velocity measurements and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, we characterized the distribution of the turbulent kinetic dissipations rates (<i>ε</i>) in an orbital shaker system within a range of rotation frequencies. CFD was able to estimate the <i>ε</i> distribution in containers accurately, which was confirmed by other two methods and was independent of velocity measurement. The results showed that <i>ε</i> was linearly correlated with the rotational frequencies. Despite the existence of gradients of <i>ε</i> and the fact that a mean circular horizontal flow was formed within the tank, the energy levels of the whole tank varied spatially within an order of magnitude and the <i>ε</i> distributions at different rotational frequencies were similar, suggesting that the <i>ε</i> distribution in the whole tank could be seen as quasi-homogeneous. To investigate the influence of turbulence on algae growth, culture experiments of a typical diatom—<i>Skeletonema costatum</i> were carried out under different turbulence conditions. Our results suggested turbulence mixing promoted nutrient uptake and growth of <i>Skeletonema costatum</i>, which could be attributed to the break of the diffusion-limited resource concentration boundary layer surrounding phytoplankton.