Digital Commons Network^™

The Struggle For Empire In The Old Northwest Territory: The Fur Trade And Alliances On The Middle Ground, Richard W. Rowe Jr.

GLI MA in American History Student Works

The Old Northwest Territory is a uniquely underserved area of American history. It stood at the intersection of several empires, each of whom often viewed it as something desirable only when hoping to keep it from falling into the hands of their rivals. Indigenous and creole people lived and died in those spaces, using the fur trade as a means for survival while they navigated between Imperial overlords. This work endeavors to build on existing academic scholarship, fill some gaps therein regarding where this topic fits into the bigger picture, and hopefully inspire others’ interest in doing further research. This …

The Effects Of Phenological Shifts On The Reproductive Success Of Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) And Arctic Terns (Sterna Paradisaea) In The Gulf Of Maine, Jamie W. Dinella

Student Publications

Climate change is resulting in ecosystem-wide consequences, including shifts in the geographical distribution of species and the timing of biological events, or phenology. The rapidly warming Gulf of Maine hosts breeding populations of migratory common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea). I used nest check data (2013-2022) and eggshell membrane stable isotope data (2022) from Petit Manan Island in the Gulf of Maine to examine the causes and consequences of variation in phenology in common and Arctic terns. I hypothesized that the timing of an individual’s breeding was impacted by their foraging behavior and that female terns that …

The Spotted Lanternfly In Gettysburg And Public Mobilization Through An Awareness Campaign, Brandon R. Fey

CAFE Symposium 2024

The invasive Spotted Lanternfly poses a significant risk to the environment and fruit industry of Adams County PA. This project involves the creation of an informational poster campaign to inform the geographically diverse daily population of Gettysburg about the spotted lanternfly and mobilize them to take action against it.

Analyzing The Ramifications Of Climate Change On Mental Health, Salvatore A. Medori

CAFE Symposium 2024

When thinking about the vast array of impacts that the climate crisis has on humanity, there are many things that come to mind, but mental health impacts are likely not one of them. Even though research demonstrates that mental effects from any form of disaster far exceed the physical health implications mental health impacts of the largest disaster facing humanity since the Second World War are rarely considered at all, let alone when solutions are being created. This has led to a hidden crisis emerging underneath an even larger crisis, with serious consequences for most individuals across the globe. The …

Care And The Funny Business Of Unsettling Land Acknowledgements, Salma Monani, David S. Walsh, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This article points to the “funny business” that invariably accompanies the practice of land acknowledgments. By highlighting the idea of “funny business,” we illuminate its double entrendre – its humor as well as the smoke and mirrors of what The Care Collective ([2020]. The care manifesto: The politics of interdependence. Verso.) describes as “carewashing,” communication strategies designed to proffer a sense of concern, while all the while continuing exploitative practices that deny and obstruct these very concerns. We meld humor with seriousness to interrogate land acknowledgments, expose the perplexing dilemmas of Indigenous and colonial contexts, and push past to …

Vulnerability Of Elevation-Restricted Endemic Birds Of The Cordillera De Talamanca (Costa Rica And Panama) To Climate Change, Zhen Lui, Luis Sandoval, Lauren B. Sherman, Andrew M. Wilson

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Animals endemic to tropical mountains are known to be especially vulnerable to climate change. The Cordillera de Talamanca (Costa Rica and Panama) is a geographically isolated mountain chain and global biodiversity hotspot, home to more than 50 endemic bird species. We used eBird community science observations to predict the distributions of a suite of 48 of these endemic birds in 2006–2015, and in 2070, under four climate change scenarios. Species distributions were predicted using program Maxent, incorporating elevation, satellite derived habitat data, and WorldClim climate variables. Model fit, as assessed by Area under the Receiver Operator Curve (AUC), was very …

The Carbon Footprint Of Tourist Transportation In Gettysburg National Military Park, Charlie T. Cross, Justin P. Sawina

Student Publications

National Parks have a contradictory mandate to preserve the environment while providing resources for recreation. We studied the emissions of Gettysburg National Military Park (GNMP), specifically: What are the annual and per capita emissions caused by the various forms of transportation within the park? How does the annual and per capita emissions of GNMP compare with other national parks? To study this we compiled visitor statistics from the National Parks Service of vehicle and visitor count. We then observed 165 vehicles at Pickett’s Charge to find a breakdown of tourist vehicle types. These proportions were then used to find the …

Analyzing The Ramifications Of Climate Change On Mental Health, Salvatore A. Medori

Student Publications

When thinking about the vast array of impacts that the climate crisis has on humanity, there are many things that come to mind, but mental health impacts are likely not one of them. Even though research demonstrates that mental effects from any form of disaster far exceed the physical health implications mental health impacts of the largest disaster facing humanity since the Second World War are rarely considered at all, let alone when solutions are being created. This has led to a hidden crisis emerging underneath an even larger crisis, with serious consequences for most individuals across the globe. The …

Roadway Characteristics And Car Accident Trends In Gettysburg, Pa, Max Smith, Jake H. Kennell, Russell H. Canova

Student Publications

This study addresses the rising motor vehicle accident and fatality rates in the United States (Moore, 2023). Focusing on the conditions in the Gettysburg Borough in an attempt to answer the following research questions: Are age of driver, weather conditions of car accidents, and traffic volume contributing to accidents in the Gettysburg Borough? What are the roadway characteristics of accident hot spot areas within the Gettysburg Borough? Utilizing Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) crash data from 2018 to 2022 and PennDot Average Annual Daily Traffic data, this study employs a comprehensive approach. Combining GIS analysis and statistical analysis to determine …

Inequality Of Air Quality?: A Study Of Air Quality Within Housing Price Brackets In Gettysburg, Pa, Jess G. Schaefer, Alexis J. Jones, Arden H. Dowd

Student Publications

With the rise of cars and other motorized vehicles has come the rise of air pollution, which tends to have disproportionate environmental and health impacts on low-income and communities of color. This study analyzes car presence and air quality on a transect within Gettysburg, PA to determine if there is a relationship between air pollution and vehicle presence, and if there is a difference in air quality between higher price bracket housing compared to campus, commercial, and lower price bracket housing. To test our research questions, we identified nine sampling locations along a transect where we measured air pollutants, including …

Navigating Car Attitudes: An Analysis Of Transportation Habits, Environmental Views, And Demographics, Caroline J. Jordan, Sydney E. Lucero, Anna L. Imrie

Student Publications

Transportation plays a crucial part in the daily lives of people and society worldwide. Our study examined the transportation habits and environmental attitudes of both Gettysburg College students and individuals across the United States. We conducted a comparative analysis using a sample from students on campus and a national sample collected from the crowdsourcing platform, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Additionally, we compared our findings with two similar studies completed by an Environmental Studies capstone nine years ago. We calculated each respondent's environmental score to gauge environmental attitudes, derived explicitly from their answers to five of the 24 survey questions. Next, we …

Clean Water Saves Lives: Improving Clean Water Access In Yeakpee Town, Liberia, Mishael F. Ohanwadi

Student Publications

Civil unrest in Liberia, a West Coast African nation, has caused the destruction of essential infrastructure, particularly water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems. As a result, there is a high reliance on unsafe water sources and prevalence of waterborne diseases and health issues, particularly in the Yeakpee Town Community. Inadequate funding has hindered progress, and there are connections between gender inequalities and limited access to clean water. The Clean Water Save Lives project, launched in 2020, aimed to provide sustainable access to clean water in Yeakpee Town community by constructing a water pump with a filtration system. The project aimed …

The Faculty Notebook, September 2023, Provost's Office

Faculty Notebook

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost.

Evidence That Bivalve Burrowing Is Mediated By Serotonin Receptors: Activation Of Foot Inflation And Protrusion By Serotonin, Serotonergic Ligands And Ssri-Type Antidepressants In Three Species Of Freshwater Bivalve, Peter P. Fong, Rebecca Blaszczyk, Mary Butler, Jake Stergio

Biology Faculty Publications

Foot inflation and protrusion in bivalve mollusks is part of a sequence of events necessary for burrowing into the substrate. Although this process been observed after exogenous exposure to the neurotransmitter serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] and by some selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) type antidepressants, no study has shown that foot inflation and protrusion as a precursor to burrowing is under serotonergic control. In order to elucidate the physiological mechanism mediating this response, we tested over 2,000 freshwater bivalves in three species by exposing them to 5-HT, two 5-HT receptor agonists, two receptor antagonists and five antidepressants. Fingernail clams (Sphaerium striatinum), …

You've Gotta Read This: Summer Reading At Musselman Library (2023), Musselman Library, Gettysburg College

You’ve Gotta Read This: Summer Reading at Musselman Library

Each year, Musselman Library asks Gettysburg College faculty, staff, and administrators to help create a suggested summer reading list. We hope to inspire students and the rest of our community to take time in the summer to sit back, relax, and read or watch a memorable film.

For 2023, 100 employees offer 134 recommendations of favorite books, films, television shows, and podcasts, covering everything from alternate history to zoology.

This year's booklet marks the 20th anniversary of the YGRT publication with a special puzzle section celebrating two decades of reading recommendations.

Climate Change: The Ultimate Cereal Killer: The Impact Of Temperature And Precipitation On Agricultural Yields, Hayley Huber, Robert Salita, Ruth Abraham

Gettysburg College Headquarters

The global food supply depends on agricultural production, but as the negative effects of climate change are exacerbated by human activity, how will agriculture need to change to accommodate both climate change and the increasing population? In order to understand what adaptations will be necessary, we perform analysis on the relationship between climate change (temperature and precipitation) and crop yields (barley, rice, and soybean). We take a multinational approach, using ten countries for each model, to see the global impact of climate change on production. Testing many models, we settle on country-specific time trends, eliminating many confounding variables by focusing …

Spend, Stress, And Struggle: Gettysburg College Student Textbook And Course Materials Survey 2022, Janelle Wertzberger, Mary Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey—this time, in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. The results from this new survey illuminate how students are affected by textbook and course material costs, how they cope with these costs, and how effects and behaviors have changed since our 2019 survey. We also examine how our students fit into a larger landscape of textbook affordability at similar institutions.

The Faculty Notebook, April 2023, Provost's Office

Faculty Notebook

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost.

Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren

Student Publications

Human-caused climate change creates a positive feedback loop that emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of being sequestered in the Earth or its oceans. A major contributor to this feedback loop is deforestation in order to use land for agriculture and livestock. This study aims to investigate differences in carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, pastures, and cropland through soil and tree sampling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main hypothesis of this study is that forested land will be the most effective at carbon sequestration. The loss on ignition method (LOI) was used to determine the percent organic material in …

Individual-Level Responses To Rapid Climate Change In Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) And Arctic Terns (Sterna Paradisaea), Kaiulani A. Sund

Student Publications

This study examines fine-scale environmental changes and intraspecific variation in the diet and foraging behavior of two seabirds in the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming regions of the ocean. This variation on the individual level, or behavioral plasticity, may help long-lived species to persist in rapidly changing environments. As the water warms, seabirds’ preferred prey (hake and herring) follow cooler waters deeper and farther offshore. It is unlikely that all individuals respond to changing food availability in the same way. For common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) breeding on Petit Manan …

The Effects Of Climate Change In Guam, Olga M. Zyzanska, Brooke R. Ashfield, Kate E. Eulberg

Student Publications

The purpose of this project is to dive into the harm that climate change has on Guam and its population. The objectives of our project are centered on highlighting the creative resistance of the CHamoru Indigenous community on Guam to established structures of colonialism and militarization during increasing climate crises. This project explores questions such as: How is Guam being impacted by climate change? Is the impact severe and/or immediate? How is the Indigenous community in Guam affected? How does US policy help or harm the island and its Indigenous population? What is being done to protect the island and …

Cub Plastic Shipping Bag Recycling Program, Samuel M. Arkin, Ethan J. Bruemmer

Student Publications

We implemented a plastic shipping bag recycling program at Gettysburg College. Recycling bags contribute towards contamination within the college's single-stream recycling or end up directly in the landfill via traditional trash collection. The production of plastic bags relies on the continued production of fossil fuel extraction. Plastic bag recycling can decrease fossil fuel extraction and waste entering landfills. To curb Gettysburg College’s generation of waste, we placed four bins in various locations throughout the Center Union Building (CUB) in order to collect plastic shipping bags over a 4.5-week period. We made three hypotheses: that our bins would collect shipping bags …

Expedition To Washington State: The Pacific Crest Trail, Mt. Rainier, Okanogan-Wenatchee, And Lake Chelan, Riley J. Nolan

CAFE Symposium 2023

Within the United States there are many different agencies that have been tasked with the management of America's Public Lands. Due to America's unique inception, there are many different ideas and concepts that affect how we view these same land units today. This poster delves into four specific land units in Washington State (The Pacific Crest National Trail, the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and Mount Rainier National Park) to discuss each area's history and management issues, as well as discuss the effects of society's preconceived notions on each destination. Finally, the poster also discusses what …

An Expedition To Public Lands, Matthew B. Olsen

CAFE Symposium 2023

A look into common ideas appearing in the US public land system. These ideas include "nature as commodity," "nature as unpeopled," and "nature as pristine." The specific areas looked into are Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, Prescott National Forest, Grand Canyon National Park, Gold Butte National Monument, and Death Valley National Park.

Rock Climbers, Public Outrage, And Deliberate Fires: An Expedition To Public Lands On The East Coast, Kat Manchester

CAFE Symposium 2023

Many are familiar with national public lands like national parks, forests, and monuments. But people are often unaware of the complex histories of these lands and the current problems facing their management. This project focuses on various public lands on the East Coast, including the Wayne National Forest, New River Gorge National Park, and the Monongahela National Forest. This poster examines the history of these lands, how they are viewed conceptually, and the managerial challenges currently facing them.

Analysis Of “A Forest Under The Sea”- Studying Giant Kelp’S Benefits To Ecosystems, And Evaluating Kelp Restoration, Natalie V. Boyd

CAFE Symposium 2023

I wrote a research paper on how Giant Kelp needs to be restored due to the rising ocean temperatures. There are two methods that I specifically focused on and learned about which are "Super Kelp" and "Green Gravel." Giant Kelp is critical to our ecosystem and marine life specifically due to all the benefits that it supplies. For example, kelp forests can sequester up to 20 times more carbon than a land forest. Unfortunately, the kelp is dying off rapidly now because of climate change; specifically the rising temperatures and increased ocean acidification. In order to save the kelp, action …

An Expedition To The Public Lands: Public Lands Of The Mid-Atlantic Region, Madeleine G. Ulman

CAFE Symposium 2023

This hypothetical "expedition" explores the complex history and managerial challenges of four different public lands in the Mid-Atlantic region: Pinelands National Reserve, Assateague Island National Seashore, Shenandoah National Park, and Monongahela National Forest. Additionally, the conceptual ideas of nature as commodity and nature as static or unpeopled in the context of public lands will be discussed in this expedition.

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 12, Spring 2023

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

Up In Smoke: Wildfires And Economic Growth, Nicholas Silvis

Gettysburg Economic Review

Do wildfires have a causal effect on economic development? Using satellite data, I analyze every country's exposure to wildfire exposure from 1982-2018. I use synthetic controls to model the impact of wildfire exposure on GDP per capita having controlled for population density, trade, agriculture, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and polity score. I find that the impacts of wildfires are fairly localized, impacting parts of Africa that both experience high numbers of wildfires and are developing.

Impact Of Charging Infrastructure On Electric Vehicle Sales: An Analysis From Counties In 13 Us States, Shubh N. Parekh

Gettysburg Economic Review

Adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), has become a priority for the government because of the constant threat of climate change. Over the years, government monetary incentives like tax credits, tax rebates, and other monetary subsidies are the leading way to increase electric vehicle sales in the United States. While these incentives are necessary to combat the high costs of electric vehicles (EVs), there hasn’t been too much attention given to combat range anxiety. Since EVs are run on lithium-ion batteries, there is a limited range for different EVs, with the maximum being around …