Geography and the Environment

Robert Dull
Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D. , Robert Dull received his B.A. in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1991, his M.A. in Geography from San Francisco State University in 1995, and his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley in December 2001.
Area(s): Environmental Resource Management; Earth Science
Courses Taught:
Dull regularly teaches undergraduate courses such as Environmental Hazards, Quaternary Landscapes, Human Use of the Earth, and the Natural Environment (Introductory Physical Geography). His regularly taught graduate seminar is on Topics in Quaternary Studies.

Research Interests:
Dull has carried out research projects both in Central America and the western United States focusing on decadal to millennial-scale changes in regional vegetation and climate. Past research projects have focused on Pre-Columbian Maya deforestation, the impacts of historical livestock grazing on mountain meadow vegetation in California, Holocene climatic variability, Neotropical savanna ecology, the emergence and spread of maize agriculture in Central America, and the cultural and ecological impacts of the 5th century A.D. Ilopango volcanic eruption in southeastern Mesoamerica. He has ongoing research projects in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, and Texas.

Selected Publications:
Dull, R.A. 2007. Evidence for Forest Clearance, Agriculture, and Human-Induced Erosion in Precolumbian El Salvador. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(1):127-141.
Dull, R.A. 2006. The Maize Revolution: A View from El Salvador. In: John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, eds. Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize. Academic Press, pp. 357-366.
Dull, R.A. 2004. An 8000 yr Record of Vegetation, Climate, and Human Disturbance from the Sierra de Apaneca, El Salvador. Quaternary Research 61:159-167.
Dull, R.A. 2004. A Holocene Record of Neotropical Savanna Dynamics from El Salvador. Journal of Paleolimnology 32: 219-231.
Dull, R.A. 2004. Lessons from the Mud, Lessons from the Maya: Paleoecological Records of the TBJ Eruption. In William I. Rose; J.J. Bommer, Dina Lopez, and Michael J. Carr, eds. Natural Hazards in El Salvador. Geological Society of America Special Paper no.375, pp. 237-244.
Dull, R.A., J. Southon and P. Sheets. 2001. Volcanism, Ecology and Culture: a Reassessment of the Volcano Ilopango TBJ Eruption in the Southern Maya Realm. Latin American Antiquity 12(1):25-44.
Dull, R.A. 1999. Palynological Evidence for 19th Century Grazing-induced Vegetation Change in the Southern Sierra Nevada, California, U.S.A. Journal of Biogeography 26(4): 899-912.