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Mark Schwartz

  • Distinguished Professor, Geography

Education

  • PhD, Geography (Climatology), University of Kansas, 1985
  • MS, Geography (Climatology), Michigan State University, 1982
  • BS, Earth Sciences, Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, 1980

Office Hours

By appointment only

Teaching Schedule

Course Num Title Meets
GEOG 120-402 Our Physical Environment TR 9:30am-10:20am
GEOG 120-801 Our Physical Environment M 11:30am-1:20pm
GEOG 120-802 Our Physical Environment M 2:30pm-4:20pm
GEOG 120-803 Our Physical Environment T 11:30am-1:20pm
GEOG 403-401 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis TR 11:30am-12:45pm
GEOG 403-801 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis T 2:30pm-4:20pm
GEOG 403-802 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis W 8:30am-10:20am
GEOG 704-401 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis TR 11:30am-12:45pm
GEOG 704-801 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis T 2:30pm-4:20pm
GEOG 704-802 Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis W 8:30am-10:20am

Courses Taught

  • Geog 310 – General Climatology
  • Geog 403 – Remote Sensing: Environmental and Land Use Analysis
  • Geog 411 – Physical Climatology
  • Geog 455 – Applied Climatology
  • Geog 804 – Advanced Remote Sensing

Research Interests

Mark D. Schwartz is a synoptic climatologist and phenoclimatologist. His main research interests are plant-climate interactions during the onset of spring and autumn. He has received seven National Science Foundation grants, authored over one hundred peer-reviewed publications, and recently edited the 3rd edition of a book entitled Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science. Phenology is the study of periodic biological events in the animal and plant world as influenced by the environment, especially temperature changes driven by weather and climate. Wide ranges of phenomena are included, from first openings of leaf and flower buds, to insect hatchings and return of birds. Each one gives a ready measure of the environment as viewed by the associated organism. Thus, timings of phenological events are ideal indicators of the impact of local and global changes in weather and climate on the earth's biosphere. Schwartz is also co-founder of the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN).

Selected Publications

Gallinat, A. S., Schwartz, M. D., Donnelly, A., Li, X., & Crimmins, T. M. (2025) Combined Volunteer and Ecological Network Observations Show Broad-scale Temperature-sensitivity Patterns for Deciduous Plant Flowering and Leaf-out Times across the Eastern USA. Journal of Ecology, published online.
Hatzis, J. J., Schwartz, M. D., Ault, T. R., Donnelly, A., Gallinat, A., Li, X., & Crimmins, T. R. (2025) Building Spring Development Indicies for Woody Species in the Conterminous United States. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology , 364, 110443.
Monahan, W. B., Rosemartin, A. , Gerst, K. L., Fisichelli, N. A., Ault, T. , Schwartz, M. D., Gross, J. E., & Weltzin, J. F. (2016) Climate Change is Advancing Spring Onset across the U.S. National Park System. Ecosphere , 7(10), e01465.
Ault, T. R., Zurita-Milla, R. , & Schwartz, M. D. (2015) A Matlab Toolbox for Calculating Spring Indices from Daily Meteorological Data. Computers & Geosciences , 83, 46-53.
Schwartz, M. D., Hanes, J. M., & Liang, L. (2013) Comparing Carbon Flux and High-resolution Spring Phenological Measurements in a Northern Mixed Forest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology , 169, 136-147.
Schwartz, M. D., Betancourt, J. L., & Weltzin, J. F. (2012) From Caprio's lilacs to the USA National Phenology Network. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , 10(6), 324-327.
Wolkovitch, E. M., Cook, B. I., Allen, J. M., Crimmins, T. M., Travers, S. , Pau, S. , Regetz, J. , Davies, T. J., Betancourt, J. L., Kraft, N. J., Ault, T. R., Kjell, B. , Mazer, S. J., McCabe, G. J., McGill, B. J., Parmesan, C. , Salamin, N. , Schwartz, M. D., & Cleland, E. E. (2012) Warming experiments underpredict plant phenological responses to climate change. Nature , 485(7399), 494-497.
Schwartz, M. D., Ahas, R. , & Aasa, A. (2006) Onset of Spring Starting Earlier Across the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology , 12(2), 343-351.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.