Rate My Professor Bryan Black

Bryan Black is Professor of Dendrochronology and Associate Director of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at the University of Arizona, where he also serves as a member of the Graduate Faculty and Chair of the Global Change Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He earned his Ph.D. in Forest Resources from Pennsylvania State University, M.S. in Forest Resources, and B.S. in Biology from Westminster College. Prior to his current positions, Black held appointments at the University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute from 2012 to 2018 and at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center from 2003 to 2012, progressing through roles including research associate and assistant research professor.

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.