Brendan Naples
B.A. Zoology and Geography, Miami University, Oxford, OH
In 2004, I joined the M.S. program in Biology at Appalachian State and began working with Dr. Melany Fisk after reading a couple of articles that spurred my interest in the effects of anthropogenic nitrogen pollution on litter decomposition and overall forest nitrogen dynamics. My project takes place at the Bartlett Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and examines belowground responses (tree roots, mycorrhizae, and extracellular enzymes) to nutrient heterogeneity in order to assess how environmental change is affecting forest ecosystems. We have so far found evidence of phosphorus limitation in young forest stands, which contradicts the long held convention that Northeastern forests are nitrogen limited.
When I am not experimenting in the lab or woods, I am hiking, cycling, playing guitar, or otherwise rabblerousing in these here Blue Ridge Mountains.