Bryan Mark

About

Bryan Mark is a professor in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University. He is a broadly trained physical geographer with expertise in Earth-Water-Atmosphere interactions, climate and environmental change, paleoclimatology, glaciers, and mountain studies. His research primarily focuses on climate-glacier-hydrologic dynamics over different time scales, emphasizing processes of climate change, glaciers, and water in mountain regions. He conducts field work in glaciated landscapes of the American Cordillera, including the Peruvian Andes, the Great Basin of Nevada, the Hindu Kush Himalaya, and Africa. His work involves collaboration internationally and employs field, laboratory, and computer-based methods from disciplines such as paleoclimatology, glacial geology, geomorphology, hydrology, and biogeochemistry. Additionally, he is involved in local climate studies and assists with delivering climate services as part of the State Climate Office of Ohio. Bryan Mark has contributed to the understanding of climate variability and glacier dynamics through his research and teaching, and he is actively engaged in mentoring students in fieldwork and interdisciplinary research.

Research topics

• Geography
• Geology
• Physical geography
• Geomorphology
• Chemistry
• Climatology
• Ecology
• Paleontology
• Archaeology
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• A global database of Holocene paleotemperature records

  Scientific Data · 2020 · 297 citations

  A comprehensive database of paleoclimate records is needed to place recent warming into the longer-term context of natural climate variability. We present a global compilation of quality-controlled, published, temperature-sensitive proxy records extending back 12,000 years through the Holocene. Data were compiled from 679 sites where time series cover at least 4000 years, are resolved at sub-millennial scale (median spacing of 400 years or finer) and have at least one age control point every 300…

  DOI

• The deglaciation of the Americas during the Last Glacial Termination

  Earth-Science Reviews · 2020 · 120 citations

  DOI

• Cryo-social dynamics: the interplay of glacial dynamics and socioeconomic conditions in the Shigar Valley, Karakoram, Pakistan

  GeoJournal · 2025-02-03 · 25 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Mountain communities globally are experiencing increasing challenges as climate-induced glacier changes disrupt water resources and agricultural systems. The Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalayan region of Pakistan has been witnessing environmental changes over the last few decades with widespread impacts on different sectors of life. In the Shigar Valley of the Karakoram region, communities face socio-economic challenges partly attributed to changes in glacier dynamics, which directly affect w…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Recent tropical Andean glacier retreat is unprecedented in the Holocene

  Science · 2024-08-01 · 25 citations

  article

  Tropical glaciers have retreated over recent decades, but whether the magnitude of this retreat exceeds the bounds of Holocene fluctuations is unclear. We measured cosmogenic beryllium-10 and carbon-14 concentrations in recently exposed bedrock at the margin of four glaciers spanning the tropical Andes to reconstruct their past extents relative to today. Nuclide concentrations are near zero in almost all samples, suggesting that these locations were never exposed during the Holocene. Our data im…

  PublisherDOI

• Effectiveness of Billion Trees Tsunami Afforestation Projects in restoration of forests in Pakistan

  Environment Development and Sustainability · 2024-04-05 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The history of forest cover dynamics in Pakistan reveals an unsatisfactory environmental situation. In the past 5 decades, particularly during the period between 1990 and 2010, the country lost an average of 41,100 hectares of green cover with a deforestation rate of 1.6% per year. The factors behind that this high deforestation rate is numerous including socio-economic transformation after the major political change during the 1970s in the mountainous areas of Pakistan, demographic cha…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing Variability in High Elevation Soil Moisture: Integrating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Satellites, and Field Hydrology

  NSF · $16k · 2014–2017

• Collaborative Research: ETBC: Peatlands as Carbon and Water Sinks under Warm Climates in the Susitna Basin, South-Central Alaska

  NSF · $270k · 2009–2014

• Collaborative Research: Glacier Recession and Livelihood Vulnerability in the Peruvian Andes

  NSF · $120k · 2008–2010

Frequent coauthors

• Jeffrey M. McKenzie

  McGill University

  97 shared

• Michel Baraër

  89 shared

• Nathan D. Stansell

  54 shared

• Donald T. Rodbell

  Union College

  52 shared

• Byron A. Steinman

  University of Minnesota, Duluth

  37 shared

• Geoffrey O. Seltzer

  Syracuse University

  32 shared

• P. J. Polissar

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  32 shared

• Oliver Wigmore

  University of Colorado Boulder

  30 shared

Labs

• Bryd Polar and Climate Research CenterPI

Education

• Ph.D., Earth Sciences

  Syracuse University

  2001

• MA, Geography

  The Ohio State University

  1995

• BA, History

  Brown University

  1992

Similar researchers at Ohio State University

• Zhengyu Liuh-86
• Harvey Millerh-49
• Man-Yau (Joseph) Chanh-44