His foreign travels have been designed to investigate climate change and human impacts on lakes and regional watersheds. Such information may yield important clues to current water use issues and human impacts. Previously affiliated with the Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Department of Soil and Water Science at UF, Brenner has been a faculty member in this department since 1990. Courses FAS 6932 Paleolimnology. Special topics in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
Lake sediments preserve records of past changes in terrestrial and aquatic environments.
Among the topics covered from a paleolimnological perspective are cultural eutrophication, lake acidification, deforestation, soil erosion, heavy metal contamination, and climate change. Since 1993, Brenner has served as coordinator for this 6-week summer Overseas Studies course. Students attend classes in Ecology and Spanish at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan in Merida, Mexico. Students live with host familites in Merida and the course has a strong field component with trips to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems including caves, coral reefs, beaches, coastal lagoons, lakes, mangroves, scrub forest, semi-deciduous dry forest, kitchen gardens, and other agricultural systems. The course is designed to introduce students to tropical ecology in general and expose them to environmental issues on the Yucatan Peninsula.