UMaine scholar publishes textbook

Understanding how water moves is fundamental to the biology, chemistry and geology of oceans and inland waters. Small-scale fluid dynamics is a topic to which students in these fields need earlier and easier access, but that is taught primarily in graduate engineering programs.

To address this problem of accessibility, Pete Jumars of the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences and Darling Marine Center in Walpole has written a new textbook, “Viscous Flow Environments in Oceans and Inland Waters,” recently published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Focusing on flows that dominate small scales in oceans and inland waters, like those that influence the feeding behaviors of mussels or the movements of larval lobster, Jumars employs relatively simple mathematics to quantify small-scale flows and provide a basic understanding of fluid behavior to non-specialists.

The book is a compilation of teaching methods and materials that Jumars developed over decades of instruction at the DMC. His upper-level undergraduate course “Design of Marine Organisms” was part of the Semester by the Sea program. The hands-on, flow-tank-based course enabled students to investigate a diversity of physical ocean environments and the mechanisms organisms use to live in those conditions.

“My intent,” says Jumars, “is to equip the reader with some of the tools and all the curiosity needed to explore more advanced treatments of fluid dynamics.”

Jumars is Professor Emeritus of Oceanography at the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences and the Darling Marine Center.

The book can be purchased directly from Cambridge Scholars at cambridgescholars.com/viscous-flow-environments-in-oceans-and-inland-waters. Please use the discount code OCEAN20 when checking out to receive a 20% discount. The book is also available through Amazon and other retailers, and for further information about how to order please contact orders@cambridgescholars.com.