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Brendan Enochs is a senior double majoring in environmental science and biological
sciences. Brendan became involved in undergraduate research as a part of his soil
ecology class, where he conducted an experiment that looked at how soil biodiversity
changes the further away you are from trail paths in the Nature Preserve.
The summer of his sophomore year, Brendan applied and participated in the Ecological
Genetics stream of the Summer Research Immersion (SRI) program. This gave him first
hand experience working in a lab environment, using current technologies, and also
allowing him to conduct another experiment, and create a research manuscript.
Since then he has worked on projects with three different faculty members over
his junior year. Working with Dr. Lua Lopez, former instructor of the ecological genetics
stream, he examined how light pollution may affect the hatching time of two frog species.
The same year, as a part of his introductory biology lab, he examined soil microbial
data from multiple deer enclosures on campus to try to elucidate whether the overpopulated
deer population on campus had an effect on the soil microbial community.
Finally, Brendan has worked with Dr. George Meindl to assess the abilities of
two native aquatic plant species at removing polluted copper, and whether there is
risk of the copper leaching back into aquatic environments after sequestration. Recently,
Brendan earned Undergraduate Research Award funds for a project with Dr. Meindl to
examine the effect of invasive leaf litter on soil biological communities.
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