Dr. Brian Cheng is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts in the Department of Environmental Conservation.  In his talk, he will provide three vignettes examining the impact of global change (planetary scale human alterations) on coastal oceans. Dr. Cheng will discuss the consequences of extreme climate events (atmospheric rivers) and non-native predatory species on Olympia oysters. He will also highlight recent work measuring predation intensity in marine protected areas. Dr. Cheng is a marine ecologist who uses laboratory experimentation, field observation, and data synthesis techniques to address fundamental and applied problems in ecology.

Dr. Cheng earned his bachelor of science from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his PhD from the University of California, Davis.

Read more about his research at his website, https://bscheng.com