Professor Emeritus, PhD (Saskatchewan), MSc (Queen's), BEng (McGill)
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology
Office: MC B405
Phone: (905) 688-5550 ext. 3413
Teaching
Current Research
At night, during the spring and fall, millions of small birds migrate
over southern Ontario. The migration of these birds is visible on large
weather radars located at major airports in Canada and the United States.
If you would like to watch the bird migration, check out the
Buffalo Weather Radar.
On clear nights, when there is a wind from the south in the spring (or from the north in the fall),
you will see a large circular area develop on the weather radar about 1 hour after sunset,
if the birds are moving.
I am presently involved in determining how the data from the weather radar
can be converted to numbers of birds migrating. I use a marine radar located on
the roof of Brock University. From the marine radar signals, I can calculate the number of
birds that are present over Brock at any moment of time. These numbers are then related to
the intensity of birds seen on the weather radar where it passes over Brock.
On April 29, 2000, I gave a talk at the AFO/Wilson/GCBO
Symposium on Weather Radar Ornithology in Galveston, TX. Click
here for the
rough draft entitled,
Application of Weather Radar to Monitoring Numbers of Birds in Migration.
Or, you can click
powerpoint for a powerpoint version. Most recently I presented an invited paper for the Radar Symposium at the August meeting of the American Ornithological Union Champagne, Illinois, August 2003 entitled "The response of nocturnally migrating birds to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario".
For more of the Proceedings of the Combined Meeting of the Wilson Ornithological Society
and the Association of Field Ornithologists, hosted by the Houston Audubon Society
and the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory at Galveston, Texas, click
here.
For an introduction to various aspects of my research, please consult the following tutorials:
Here are a couple of bird calls; click on the following to hear:
While in Thailand in February of 2001, I prepared a document about Using Acoustic Microphones
to Monitor Bird Populations at a Site in North-East Thailand. Click
here for a working paper on the topic.
Previous Research
Studies of the forces and movements of atoms on metal
surfaces. The techniques employed are molecular dynamics and lattice
dynamics. It is now possible for experimental physicists to study the behaviour
of a small patch of metal atoms on a metal surface. My research involves
the simulation, on the computer, of these tiny metal patches. The
simulations are carried out by solving Newton's equations of motion for a
few hundred atoms.
The accompanying figure shows four palladium atoms on a copper surface.
The data from the simulations helps in the interpretation of the
experimental results. This interpretation is of great importance in the
fabrication of miniature electronic devices.
Other Interests
Recent Publications
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R. H. Diehl, R. P. Larkin, and J. E. Black (2003). Radar Observations of Bird Migration over the Great Lakes. The Auk, 120, 278-290.
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J.E. Black. A Study of the Nocturnal Spring
Migration of Birds at Point Abino based on Radar and Ground Observations.
Brock Physics Report, PR-2000-6.
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J.E. Black. Ontario Spring Bird Migration on Weather Radar:
an update.
Birders Journal, 9, #1, 37-9, 2000.
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J.E. Black and J. McNeil.
Radar studies of the 1999 spring migration at Brock
University: a comparison of radar data and insect data from pheromone and blacklight traps.
Brock Physics Report, PR-2000-3.
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J.E. Black.
Radar studies of the 1999 spring migration at Brock
University: the Buffalo Weather Radar.
Brock Physics Report, PR-2000-2.
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J.E. Black.
Radar studies of the 1999 spring migration at
Brock University: the distinction between insects and birds.
Brock Physics Report, PR-2000-1.
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J.E. Black. Ontario Spring bird migration on weather
radar: How to anticipate good birding days during spring migration.
Birders Journal, 7, 310, 1998-9.
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J.E. Black and N.R. Donaldson. Comments on
``Display of Bird Movement on the WSR-88D: Patterns and Quantification."
Weather and Forecasting, 14, 1049-40, 1999.
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T.S. Rahman,
Z.-J. Tian, and J.E. Black.
Surface disordering, roughening and
premelting of Ag(110). Surf. Sci., 374, 9-16, 1997.
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J.E. Black. Monitoring nocturnal
migration with acoustic microphones. Birders Journal, 5,
75, 1996.
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J.E. Black
Nocturnal migration and the Niagara Escarpment: A
comparison of ground observation, data from a weather radar and data from a conical radar.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1998-2.
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J.E. Black.
The relation between the number of calls of a
nocturnally migrating bird species heard and the actual number of individuals of that
species passing overhead.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1997-3.
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J.E. Black and A. Parkhill
An evaluation of avian acoustic location array
accuracy.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1997-1.
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J.E. Black.
A study of the height of birds and the range of
microphones in the nocturnal migration: New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Spring 1966.d.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1996-2.
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J.E. Black.
Determination of the height of
nocturnal passerine migrants from their call notes using an array of
four acoustic microphones at St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, in the Fall
of 1995.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1996-1.
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J.E. Black.
The relation between the number of
calls of a nocturnally migrating bird species heard and the actual number
of individuals of that species passing overhead.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1995-1a.
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R. Ross, S. Smith, and J.E. Black.
A Fall Study (1995) of nocturnal
bird migration in southern Ontario using acoustic microphones and radar.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1995-6.
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V. Tucakov and J.E. Black.
The determination of the height of
nocturnal passerine migrants from their call notes using an array of
four acoustic microphones.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1995-5.
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L. Blanchard, R. Ross, S. Smith, and J.E. Black.
A Spring Study (1995) of nocturnal
bird migration in southern Ontario using acoustic microphones.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1995-4.
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L. Blanchard and J.E. Black. A Fall
Study (1994) of nocturnal migration of passerines using acoustic
microphones.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1995-2.
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T.D. Pope, M. Vos, H.T. Tang, K. Griffiths, I.V. Mitchell, P.R. Norton,
W. Liu, Y.S. Li, K.A.R. Mitchell, Z.-J.
Tian, and J.E. Black. A structural
study of Pd/Cu(100) surface alloys. Surf. Sci., 337,
79-91, 1995.
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Z.-J. Tian and J.E. Black. Phonon spectra and mean square displacements on
Cu(11n) vicinal surfaces. Surf. Sci., 303, 395-408,
1994.
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T.S. Rahman, J.E. Black, and Z.-J. Tian.
Dynamics of a metal overlayer on metallic
substrates - high temperature effects.
Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. , 291, 205-10, 1993.
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J.E. Black, and Z.-J. Tian.
Complicated exchange-mediated
diffusion mechanisms in and on a Cu(100) substrate at high temperatures.
Phys. Rev. Lett.,71, 2445-8, 1993.
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L. Blanchard and J.E. Black. A Spring
Study (1994) of nocturnal migration of passerines using acoustic
microphones.
Brock Physics Report, PR-1994-2.
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J.E. Black and Z.-J. Tian.
Palladium atoms on a copper surface: a molecular dynamics study.
Comments Cond. Matter Phys,16, 281-305, 1993.
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T.S. Rahman and J.E. Black. Dynamics
of a Ag overlayer on Ni(100). Phys. Rev. B 48, 5530, 1993.
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J.E. Black. Ultrathin Pd films on
Cu(100): an investigation using the Finnis-Sinclair potentials of Raffi-Tabar
and Sutton. Phys. Rev. B 46, 4292-4, 1992.
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J.E. Black, Z.-J. Tian, and
T.S. Rahman. Structure and dynamics of an Ag
overlayer on Cu(100): a study using the embedded atom method.
Surf. Sci., 291, 215-25, 1993.
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