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Gettysburg College

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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment

Interspecific Overlap In Seabird Diet Throughout The Breeding Season, Alexis V. Berkey Apr 2026

Interspecific Overlap In Seabird Diet Throughout The Breeding Season, Alexis V. Berkey

Student Publications

Seabirds are central-place foragers that breed in multi-species colonies, providing an opportunity to study species coexistence. I quantified interspecific competition among four seabird species (common terns Sterna hirundo, Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica, black guillemots Cepphus grylle) breeding in the Gulf of Maine in 2022, 2024, and 2025. I hypothesized that, throughout the breeding season, 1) seabird diet would change and 2) interspecific overlap in diet would increase. I compared diets across species and time using direct observation of prey feeds and stable isotope values of seabird egg membranes and blood, which provide …

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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 Oct 2023

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 …

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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 Oct 2023

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 …

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Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren Apr 2023

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 …

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Individual-Level Responses To Rapid Climate Change In Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) And Arctic Terns (Sterna Paradisaea), Kaiulani A. Sund Apr 2023

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 …

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Evaluating Human Pressure On Protected Areas In East Africa, Bailey M. Ytterdahl Apr 2022

Evaluating Human Pressure On Protected Areas In East Africa, Bailey M. Ytterdahl

Student Publications

Protected areas (PAs) are crucial to achieving effective conservation goals and mitigate the loss of biodiversity. I investigated the following research questions: How does human pressure threaten PAs in East Africa? Is human pressure associated with the factors of country, ecosystem characteristics, size, or governance type of a PA? For this study, I used a combination of a GIS analysis and case studies to evaluate human pressure on PAs in Tanzania and Kenya. For the GIS analysis, I used 589 terrestrial PAs from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Within each PA, I summarized the landform, landcover, moisture level, …

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Logging Impacts On Aquatic Ecosystem Quality In Michaux State Forest, Pennsylvania, Sara Baran, Timothy J. Bell, Erick R. Seager Apr 2022

Logging Impacts On Aquatic Ecosystem Quality In Michaux State Forest, Pennsylvania, Sara Baran, Timothy J. Bell, Erick R. Seager

Student Publications

Logging can affect freshwater streams around logging sites, even years after the logging has occurred. In this study, we looked into how sustainable logging in Michaux State Forest (in Adams County, Pennsylvania) has affected two streams within the state park: Mountain Creek and Birch Run. Six sites were selected along each stream, with three upstream and three downstream from the logging area. We hypothesized that the water quality would be lower at the stream sites downstream from the logged areas as compared to the upstream sites. At each site, water samples were collected, including pH, water temperature, and turbidity, as …

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Field Study Of Potential Relocation Sites For The Adams County Farmers’ Market, Patrick J. Canty, Michael S. Iodice Oct 2021

Field Study Of Potential Relocation Sites For The Adams County Farmers’ Market, Patrick J. Canty, Michael S. Iodice

Student Publications

Farmers markets are an essential part of a community's culture and provide a vital service to all of its members. Currently, the Adam’s County Farmers Market is at a crossroads, as the lease it has on its current location is up and they must consider where they will go next. The purpose of this study is to assist the market in finding the best location in Gettysburg by analyzing the potential sites and providing a numerical score to compare each site. Four potential locations were used in this study: Constitution Lot, Lutheran Seminary, Recreation Park and the Existing site location. …

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Assessing The Impact Of A New Inlet Created By 2012 Hurricane Sandy On The Intensity Of Algae Blooms In Bellport Bay Ny, Ryan A. Wagner Oct 2020

Assessing The Impact Of A New Inlet Created By 2012 Hurricane Sandy On The Intensity Of Algae Blooms In Bellport Bay Ny, Ryan A. Wagner

Student Publications

Harmful algae blooms (HABs) are a growing ecosystem health issue in environments worldwide, driven by excess nitrogen runoff (Eutrophication) alongside high summer temperatures. HABs strip oxygen from the environment and create toxic environments that impact other primary producers, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, and any other organisms that enter an affected body of water. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of a new inlet, created by Hurricane Sandy in Long Island’s Bellport Bay, on the concentration of algae blooms during peak blooming periods (Jul-Aug) to inform ecosystem-based management. Google Earth Engine Code Editor and 2008-2017 Landsat 5-8 …

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The Traits That Predict The Magnitude And Spatial Scale Of Forest Bird Responses To Urbanization Intensity, Grant D. Paton, Alexandra V. Shoffner, Andrew M. Wilson, Sara A. Gagné Jul 2019

The Traits That Predict The Magnitude And Spatial Scale Of Forest Bird Responses To Urbanization Intensity, Grant D. Paton, Alexandra V. Shoffner, Andrew M. Wilson, Sara A. Gagné

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

As humans continue moving to urban areas, there is a growing need to understand the effects of urban intensification on native wildlife populations. Forest species in remnant habitat are particularly vulnerable to urban intensification, but the mechanisms behind these effects are poorly understood. An understanding of how species traits, as proxies for mechanisms, mediate the effects of urban intensification on forest species can help fill this knowledge gap. Using a large point count dataset from the Second Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas, we tested for the effects of species traits on the magnitude and spatial scale of the responses of 58 …

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Analysis Of Flood Patterns In Adams County, Pennsylvania Utilizing Drone Technology And Computer Simulations, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai Jul 2019

Analysis Of Flood Patterns In Adams County, Pennsylvania Utilizing Drone Technology And Computer Simulations, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Student Publications

Drone imagery and photogrammetry models of the Gettysburg College campus and the terrain at Boyer Nurseries and Orchards were utilized to study flood patterns in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg College has lower-sloped land and moderately built infrastructure while Boyer Orchards has drastically sloped land with many patches of abundant vegetation. The two locations were selected due to the fact that they have starkly different surface features, while the bedrock geology of the areas are very similar. The terrain of the models was isolated before a 3D carver and 3D printer were used to construct physical models to further analyze potential …

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Life Without The Beach: Projected Sea Level Rise And Its Impact On Barrier Islands Along The East Coast, Usa, Cara Johnson, Gabrielle N. Kase, Samantha B. Pfeffer Apr 2019

Life Without The Beach: Projected Sea Level Rise And Its Impact On Barrier Islands Along The East Coast, Usa, Cara Johnson, Gabrielle N. Kase, Samantha B. Pfeffer

Student Publications

As climate change is becoming a global issue, the impact of sea level rise is increasingly becoming a threat to humans, wildlife, infrastructure, and ecosystems. To evaluate the effects of sea level rise on barrier islands and coastal regions, we studied future projections of sea level rise at Ocean City and Assateague Island, Maryland. We hypothesize that the sea levels at Assateague and Ocean City will have different beach profiles, and will show different levels of flooding through the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) simulations. We measured beach profiles at four locations, two at Ocean City and two at Assateague Island, …

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The Relative Effects Of Forest Amount, Forest Configuration, And Urban Matrix Quality On Forest Breeding Birds, Alexandra V. Shoffner, Andrew M. Wilson, Wenwu Tang, Sara A. Gagné Nov 2018

The Relative Effects Of Forest Amount, Forest Configuration, And Urban Matrix Quality On Forest Breeding Birds, Alexandra V. Shoffner, Andrew M. Wilson, Wenwu Tang, Sara A. Gagné

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Urbanization modifies landscape structure in three major ways that impact avian diversity in remnant habitat: habitat amount is reduced and habitat configuration and matrix quality are altered. The relative effects of these three components of landscape structure are relatively well-studied in agricultural landscapes, but little is known about the relative effect of urban matrix quality. We addressed this gap by investigating the relative effects of forest amount, forest configuration, and matrix quality, indicated by degree of urbanization and agriculture amount, on the diversity of three guilds of forest birds using data from 13,763 point counts from Pennsylvania, USA. Forest amount …

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Geographic Variation Of Cirques On Iceland: Factors Influencing Cirque Morphology, Heather A. Ipsen, Rachael E. Grube, Jessica F. Lee, Sarah M. Principato Mar 2017

Geographic Variation Of Cirques On Iceland: Factors Influencing Cirque Morphology, Heather A. Ipsen, Rachael E. Grube, Jessica F. Lee, Sarah M. Principato

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Cirques are one of the most common glacial landforms in alpine settings. They also provide important paleoclimate information (e.g. Meierding 1984; Evans 2006). The purpose of this study is to fill in gaps in the climate record of Iceland by conducting a quantitative analysis of cirques in three regions in Iceland: Tröllaskagi, the East Fjords, and Vestfirðir. Iceland, located in the center of the North Atlantic Ocean, contains many small glaciers, in addition to large ice caps. The glaciers on Iceland are particularly sensitive to variations in oceanic and atmospheric circulation (Andresen et al. 2005; Geirsdóttir et al., 2009; Ólafsdóttir …

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Hearing In The Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia Mydas): A Comparison Of Underwater And Aerial Hearing Using Auditory Evoked Potentials, Wendy Dow Piniak, David A. Mann, Craig A. Harms, T. Todd Jones, Scott A. Eckert Oct 2016

Hearing In The Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia Mydas): A Comparison Of Underwater And Aerial Hearing Using Auditory Evoked Potentials, Wendy Dow Piniak, David A. Mann, Craig A. Harms, T. Todd Jones, Scott A. Eckert

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Sea turtles spend much of their life in aquatic environments, but critical portions of their life cycle, such as nesting and hatching, occur in terrestrial environments, suggesting that it may be important for them to detect sounds in both air and water. In this study we compared underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities in five juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) by measuring auditory evoked potential responses to tone pip stimuli. Green sea turtles detected acoustic stimuli in both media, responding to underwater stimuli between 50 and 1600 Hz and aerial stimuli between 50 and 800 Hz, with maximum …

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Fracking In Pennsylvania: A Spatial Analysis Of Impacts On Land Cover And Land Use, The Viewshed, And The Audioshed, Kelly A. Collins Apr 2016

Fracking In Pennsylvania: A Spatial Analysis Of Impacts On Land Cover And Land Use, The Viewshed, And The Audioshed, Kelly A. Collins

Student Publications

Hydraulic fracturing is the process of extracting natural gas from layers of shale rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The largest source of natural gas in the US is the Marcellus Shale, largely located in Pennsylvania, and it is believed to hold about 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in its shale deposits. My study examined the impacts of well sites on land cover and land use, the viewshed, and the audioshed. To study the effect of wellpads on land use and land cover, we overlaid a layer of wellpads over land cover data as well as a …

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Seismic Surveys And Marine Turtles: An Underestimated Global Threat?, Sarah E. Nelms, Wendy Dow Piniak, Caroline R. Weir, Brendan J. Godley Nov 2015

Seismic Surveys And Marine Turtles: An Underestimated Global Threat?, Sarah E. Nelms, Wendy Dow Piniak, Caroline R. Weir, Brendan J. Godley

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Seismic surveys are widely used in marine geophysical oil and gas exploration, employing airguns to produce sound-waves capable of penetrating the sea floor. In recent years, concerns have been raised over the biological impacts of this activity, particularly for marine mammals. While exploration occurs in the waters of at least fifty countries where marine turtles are present, the degree of threat posed by seismic surveys is almost entirely unknown. To investigate this issue, a mixed-methods approach involving a systematic review, policy comparison and stakeholder analysis was employed and recommendations for future research were identified. This study found that turtles have …

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The Perfect Pitch: Car Commercials In The Environment, Alyssa P. Beyer, Sara Moyer Oct 2014

The Perfect Pitch: Car Commercials In The Environment, Alyssa P. Beyer, Sara Moyer

Student Publications

Car commercials, like many advertisements, tempt its viewers with comfort, capability, or safety features, as well as being well‐engineered, affordable, attractive, large or compact sized, or fuel efficient. This study examines the pitches in YouTube car commercial video clips from the 1960s until 2014. We coded a total of 263 total car commercials based on pitch, setting, narrator, decade, and country of origin. The analysis revealed that most car commercials were presented in rural settings and capability was pitched most frequently overall. Fuel efficiency was ranked third overall; however, within urban settings, fuel efficiency had the highest frequency. During the …

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Walkable Gettysburg— How Pedestrian Friendly Is The Borough Of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania?, Samuel C. Gilvarg, Shane A. Kesnig Oct 2014

Walkable Gettysburg— How Pedestrian Friendly Is The Borough Of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania?, Samuel C. Gilvarg, Shane A. Kesnig

Student Publications

Walkability is a measure of how easily pedestrians can reach a variety of destinations via walking. Greater walkability has been linked to several benefits, including improvements in human health, economic stimulus, and improved air quality. We surveyed 37 blocks in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to record the presence of 13 design factors such as street trees and pedestrian oriented amenities that have been shown to encourage walking. These results were then compared with the Walk Score from walkscore.com, a common measurement tool of walkability. Based on the surveys, we calculated a design quality score (DQI) for each block. There was no correlation …

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Noise Pollution? What's The Solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Andrew F. Kapp, Joseph M. Passmore, Anika H. Schneider Oct 2014

Noise Pollution? What's The Solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Andrew F. Kapp, Joseph M. Passmore, Anika H. Schneider

Student Publications

Noise pollution can be damaging to a community by impacting its atmosphere as well as the health of its residents, local quality of life, and local economy. Our study sought to gain insight into the level of noise pollution in Gettysburg, both in-town and on the Gettysburg College campus, and how noise pollution may be affecting the local residents and students. We selected 9 sampling sites, 6 in-town and 3 on the college campus, and measured the noise pollution in dBA with portable sound meters three days a week and three times a day over a three week period. Our …

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What Drives Car Attitudes: An Analysis Of How Demographics And Environmental Views Relate To Car Attitudes, Kelly M. Gross, Alexandra S. Isaacson, Brian J.B. Lonabocker Oct 2014

What Drives Car Attitudes: An Analysis Of How Demographics And Environmental Views Relate To Car Attitudes, Kelly M. Gross, Alexandra S. Isaacson, Brian J.B. Lonabocker

Student Publications

Successfully marketing new, clean, car technologies to consumers requires an advertising strategy that fits consumers’ priorities and attitudes towards cars. We created a survey to study how attitudes towards cars are associated with demographics and environmental views. Our study examined car preferences and environmental concerns of a sample of Gettysburg College students in comparison to a national sample obtained from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Overall, we concluded that environmental beliefs are a significantly better prediction of car behaviors than demographics. We found that on average people would pay more for a car with a higher fuel economy, but not enough to …

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All That Sprawl, Y’All: An Analysis Of Development On Steinwehr Avenue And York Street In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, From 1971 To 2014, Elizabeth K. Emmons, Kalley S. Hansel, Daly Simpson May 2014

All That Sprawl, Y’All: An Analysis Of Development On Steinwehr Avenue And York Street In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, From 1971 To 2014, Elizabeth K. Emmons, Kalley S. Hansel, Daly Simpson

Student Publications

The advent of the automobile transformed the American landscape in the 20th century. In conjunction with the increasing importance of the automobile, numerous post-WW II government programs such as the Interstate Highway System encouraged suburban sprawl. Towns and cities adjacent to tourist attractions, known as gateway communities, face unique problems caused by sprawl. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of a gateway community as it includes the Gettysburg National Military Park. Two study sites, portions of Steinwehr Avenue and York Street, were studied to analyze the effects of sprawl in Gettysburg. The sites were analyzed using ArcGIS, data compiled from historic …

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A Comparison Of Aviris And Landsat For Land Use Classification At The Urban Fringe, Rutherford V. Platt, Alexander F.H. Goetz Jan 2004

A Comparison Of Aviris And Landsat For Land Use Classification At The Urban Fringe, Rutherford V. Platt, Alexander F.H. Goetz

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In this study we tested whether AVIRIS data allowed for improved land use classification over synthetic Landsat ETM+ data for a location on the urban-rural fringe of Colorado. After processing the AVIRIS image and creating a synthetic Landsat image, we used standard classification and post-classification procedures to compare the data sources for land use mapping. We found that, for this location, AVIRIS holds modest, but real, advantages over Landsat for the classification of heterogeneous and vegetated land uses. Furthermore, this advantage comes almost entirely from the large number of sensor spectral bands rather than the high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR).

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Polinices Predation Patterns And Mercenaria Morphology Models, John A. Commito Mar 1987

Polinices Predation Patterns And Mercenaria Morphology Models, John A. Commito

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

DeAngelis et al. (1985) have described a model of the evolutionary response of bivalve prey to size-selective naticid snail predation. The model analyzed "the allocation of bivalve energy among reproduction, overall growth in size, and supplementary growth in shell thickness" (p. 818). Using parameter values for Polinices duplicatus as the predator and Mercenaria mercenaria as the prey, the model predicted three optimal strategies for bivalves faced with naticid predation: (1) delayed reproduction with energy diverted into rapid growth in order to reach a size refuge; (2) early reproduction, possibly with some extra shell thickness; and (3) greatly increased shell thickness …

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