BEE 6560 - Ecological Mechanics

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisites: ENGRD 2020 (or equivalent statics and mechanics of solid), BEE 3310 (or equivalent fluid mechanics), BEE 3500 (or equivalent heat and mass transport), and BEE 3400 (or equivalent solid mechanics). Co-meets with BEE 4560.

C. Roh.

Ecological mechanics explores ecological relations from a mechanics perspective, including fluid, solid, structural mechanics, and heat and mass transport. While other ecological studies incorporate transport of mass, energy, and information, consideration of momentum transport and its consequence in biotic and abiotic relations in organisms is unique to this discipline. We begin the course by introducing the fundamental and advanced concepts in mechanics. Then we will learn how to incorporate these concepts by considering response function (the functional relationship between condition imposed on the system and its response) to understand and predict ecological phenomena such as predator-prey relation and pattern formation.