Rate My Professor Bryan Black

Black's research focuses on sclerochronology, applying dendrochronology techniques to annual growth increments in the hard parts of marine and freshwater species such as fish otoliths, bivalves, and corals. These chronologies reveal long-term patterns in productivity and their connections to climate, quantify impacts of human activities, hindcast pre-instrumental climate conditions, and integrate multi-proxy records to link marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. Trained originally as a forest ecologist, he also develops chronologies of forest disturbances and natural hazards, including landslides and earthquakes. His influential work includes the publication 'A multifault earthquake threat for the Seattle metropolitan region revealed by mass tree mortality' in Science Advances (2023), 'Growth Rings across the Tree of Life: demographic insights from biogenic time series data' in Demographic Methods Across the Tree of Life (Oxford University Press, 2021), 'Positive unintended consequences of urbanization for climate-resilience of stream ecosystems' in npj Urban Sustainability (2024), 'Seasonality and lake water temperature inferred from the geochemistry and sclerochronology of quaternary freshwater bivalves from the Turkana Basin' in Quaternary Science Reviews (2023), and 'Growth portfolios buffer climate-linked environmental change in marine systems' in Ecology (2022). Black teaches courses including Introduction to Global Change (GC 170A1), Dendrochronology (GEOS 597C), Dendrochronology Research Experience (GEOS 275), and various research and independent study seminars.