Environmental Studies | Open Access Articles

The Future Of West African Cacao Farming, Kathryn Lesniewski

CAFE Symposium 2026

This poster covers the detrimental impact climate change has had on the West African cacao farming industry. It also covers long and short term solutions to climate change, and how the global chocolate market has been impacted by climate change.

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An Exploration Of The Public Lands: Kaibab National Forest, Glen Canyon Nra, Zion National Park, And Desert Nwr, Patrick Tobin

CAFE Symposium 2026

An exploration of a few of America's public lands shows how our views on nature can shape how and why we protect lands. In the Southwest, we see the ideas of "nature as commodity" and "nature as pristine and unchanging" pop up time and again. These main ideas are necessary in how we view the public lands, and how we enjoy them.

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Hydrangeas And Its Cultural Significance At Gettysburg College, Lyz An

CAFE Symposium 2026

Hydrangeas, along with many other botanical plants, are often taken for granted. While originally used for landscaping methods, they also teach us the importance of warmth and influence the way we feel about certain environments in which they grow in. At Gettysburg College, these hydrangeas may not be intentionally grown at specific locations but play a dominant role in the way we connect with it.

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Examining The City Of Philadelphia’S Proposition Bill #250768 “Stop Trashing Our Air Act” By Addressing Waste Management And Environmental Justice Challenges In Chester City, Pennsylvania And The Philadelphia Region, Dylan Wascavage

Student Publications

This paper offers a policy analysis of the City of Philadelphia’s "Stop Trashing Our Air Act" by summarizing the reasoning for the bill's call to action, its legislative background, identifying key players and their strategies, and how these strategies reflect philosophies of environmental governance and the policy cycle. It seeks to inform local community members and policymakers of the implications of this bill, to highlight the lack of state and federal intervention on this issue, and to address the environmental justice and pollution concerns of the Covanta waste incinerator in Chester City and its neighboring communities. It also aims to …

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Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Reburns In Western Us Forests, Jackson M. Boyle

Student Publications

In the Western United States, understanding the role of reburns, or repeat wildfires, has become a topic of increased interest as the damages caused by wildfires have risen. While some forests are adapted to frequent burns, others have fire regimes characterized by few or infrequent burns. While all fires alter ecosystems, reburns have been found to specifically lower seeding probability and accelerate or start the shift from forests to shrublands. Despite these ecological impacts, the temporal and spatial trends of reburns remain understudied. Using Google Earth Engine, I analyzed the Composite Burn Index (CBI) dataset to see if reburns are …

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Tracking Phenological Shifts Of Black Guillemots Cepphus Grylle In The Gulf Of Maine, Jocelyn L. Little

Student Publications

Rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine has coincided with changes in phenology across trophic levels. Phenological change has yet to be studied in black guillemots (Cepphus grylle), a widely distributed benthic forager that is showing population decline in the region. Because black guillemots nest in burrows, their phenology can be challenging to study. I developed methods to track black guillemot phenology on Petit Manan Island, a seabird breeding colony in the Gulf of Maine. Specifically, I asked Q1) Can daily tower count data be used to predict black guillemot breeding phenology? Q2) How is black guillemot breeding phenology shifting …

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Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) As Bioindicators For Atlantic Herring (Clupea Harengus) Distribution In The Gulf Of Maine, Logan R. Becker

Student Publications

Effective fisheries management is increasingly challenged by climate-driven shifts in species distribution and by a lack of data on early life stages of key forage fish species. In the Gulf of Maine, Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), a once economically dominant fishery species and a key prey species for many dependent predators, has declined due to poor early-stage recruitment and warming waters. Despite this decline, current trawl surveys do not inform early-stage Atlantic herring distribution due to mesh size limitations, leaving critical gaps in our knowledge. To address this knowledge gap, I used common terns (Sterna hirundo) …

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Pom Poko: When Nature Speaks Out Against Urbanization, Sabrina Huynh

CAFE Symposium 2025

Pom Poko highlights the correlation between the survival of nature and the progress of humanity. Therefore, by showing different dynamic relationships like Gonta’s aggressive way of fighting against or peaceful co-existence of Shoukichi, Pom Poko suggests viewers may feel that humans should find a way to live harmoniously with the environment.

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A Recycling Case Study: Gettysburg College, Luke Francek

CAFE Symposium 2025

My project addresses the issue of non-recyclable Van Doren reed cases at Gettysburg College and proposes a community-based solution to mitigate waste. It outlines the environmental impact of improperly handled reed cases, presents research on reed usage and material recyclability, and proposes two initiatives: an education campaign and a dedicated collection receptacle for proper disposal. The proposal emphasizes collaboration with faculty, localized recycling efforts, and the potential for broader replication in other communities.

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How Did The Deer Cross The Road? Reducing Habitat Fragmentation And Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Deaths Through Connective Conservation In The South Mountain Region, Pennsylvania, Jack B. Joiner, Emily R. Kreider, Thomas H. Manning, Madison E. Rowell

Student Publications

While some deleterious effects of road networks and the vehicles that travel them– such as pollution, fossil fuel extraction, and carbon emissions– are widely recognized, their significant role in causing an estimated one million wildlife deaths per day (Shilling et al., 2021) and contributing to habitat loss and degradation, the leading causes of global biodiversity decline (Pinto et al., 2023), has garnered less attention. Connective conservation policies, such as designating wildlife corridors and constructing wildlife crossings on roadways, have been proposed as a means of mitigating these repercussions. This study proposes a connective conservation plan addressing the logistics of a …

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Green Defense: Evaluating Potentials And Limitations In Transitioning Military Vehicles To Clean Energy, Aurora M. V. Bellingeri, Danielle M. Drumm, Zoe S. Koutsokostas

Student Publications

Army operations rely on fuel-intensive vehicles and aircraft, which contribute substantially to global emissions and the looming threat of global warming. This study evaluates the potential of transitioning five key U.S. Army vehicles, the M1301 ISV, HMMWV M1165, JLTV M1280, LMTV M1078, and M3A3 Bradley, from traditional diesel and JP8 powertrains to electric vehicle (EV) and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) technologies. Vehicle specifications including engine power, fuel efficiency, weight, and payload were gathered for each vehicle and compared. Efficiency was estimated for EV and FCV powertrains using linear regressions with data from the AFLEET Online tool, which provided national …

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Reimagining Gettysburg: Enhancing Walkability And Bikeability In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Gabriella Germano, Elif Ozturan, Jeanne-Marie Thomas

Student Publications

The overall goal of this study was to assess 28 selected locations in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, score them for walkability and bikeability, and suggest changes to low-ranking locations to improve the infrastructure of the town. We selected these points by focusing on areas of target for residents (grocery shopping, routes to work, schools, etc.), and to ensure we covered a major portion of the town for proper representation. We scored each of our sites using our instrument, which was broken down into two main categories: walkability and bikeability. We also conducted on-site interviews with passersby to collect first-hand accounts about these …

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Gettysburg On The Go: A Bike Share Program For A Greener Gettysburg, Rachelle Dale, Emily Hazelrigg, Mishael F. Ohanwadi, Anastasia Volciak

Student Publications

A bike share program is a shared transportation system that offers convenient short-term bicycle access for a low cost. This study aims to assess the potential for a program in Gettysburg, PA and develop a proposal for implementation. We assessed the potential of a bike share program by administering a survey targeted to locals, tourists, and college students. We conducted a peer-system analysis of three bikeshare programs in cities with similar characteristics to Gettysburg in terms of population, rural areas, tourism levels, and three additional systems in a regional bike share to aid in the creation of a proposal for …

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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.

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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 …

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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 …

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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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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 …

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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 …

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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.

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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.

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The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 12, Spring 2023

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

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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.

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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 …

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The Domestic Impact Of International Shaming: Evidence From Climate Change And Human Rights, Faradj Koliev, Douglas D. Page, Jonas Tallberg

Political Science Faculty Publications

Do international shaming efforts affect citizens’ support for government policies? While it is a frequent claim in the literature that shaming works through domestic politics, we know little about how and when international criticism affects domestic public opinion. We address this question through an originally designed survey experiment in Sweden, which (i) compares the effects of international shaming in two issue areas—human rights and climate change, and (ii) tests whether government responses to criticism moderate the impact of shaming. Our main findings are fourfold. First, we find substantial effects of international shaming on domestic public opinion. These effects hold across …

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The Voluntary Carbon Market: Managing The Private Provision Of Public Goods, Atticus Maloney

Gettysburg College Headquarters

While much work has examined the large-scale compliance-based carbon offset programs associated with the Kyoto Protocol and Clean Development Mechanism, there has been far less focus on the voluntary purchasing of carbon offsets. This critical literature review will look at the formation and management of the demand for voluntary carbon offsets within the United States. It will frame carbon offsets as impure public goods and review possible explanations as to why private provision has been so active in the U.S. market. The paper will then survey the efficiency gains and other benefits associated with the voluntary market. It will highlight …

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Indigenous Pennsylvania: Past, Present, And Future, Sarah E. Gilsoul

Student Publications

Gettysburg College recently adopted an official Land Acknowledgment Statement. However, there is little publicly accessible media that helps students, or the greater Gettysburg community, understand Indigenous presence in our region. This project, Indigenous Pennsylvania: Past, Present, and Future seeks to address the primary question, “How can we represent Indigenous presence within our region to be informative and inclusive of Indigenous worldviews and perspectives?” The study tackles two sub-questions: a) what are the best digital tools to generate a virtual and informative interactive map that can represent Indigenous senses of space, time, and land relations? and b) what aspects of Indigenous …

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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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Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs In Coral Reefs: A Global Analysis, Megan E. Keene

Student Publications

Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots that provide humans with extractive ecosystem services like fisheries and non-extractive services like tourism. Though no studies have examined these trade-offs among these services at a global scale, there are now large, open datasets that make this possible. Using these datasets, we asked whether spatial protection and the level of protection (World Database on Protected Areas) impacted coral reef tourism value (Atlas of Ocean Wealth). We also examined whether proximity to regions of high fishing effort, defined as the top 25th percentile of the average annual effort from Global Fishing Watch, impacted tourism values. Since …

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Estimating Fish Diet In Lake Turkana, Kenya, Julia G. Sharapi

Student Publications

Lake Turkana, located in northern Kenya on the Ethiopian border, is the world’s largest permanent desert lake. Over 90% of its flow originates from the Omo River in Ethiopia, which causes the lake to have seasonal rises and falls in water level. The Omo River has been subject to the construction of five dams (the Gilgel Gibe dams) and several irrigation projects. These developments will impact the amount of water entering the lake, with implications for lake chemistry and productivity, littoral habitat availability, and the breeding biology of the lake’s fishes. Though ongoing upstream changes are likely to have serious …

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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Studies

The Future Of West African Cacao Farming, Kathryn Lesniewski

CAFE Symposium 2026

An Exploration Of The Public Lands: Kaibab National Forest, Glen Canyon Nra, Zion National Park, And Desert Nwr, Patrick Tobin

CAFE Symposium 2026

Hydrangeas And Its Cultural Significance At Gettysburg College, Lyz An

CAFE Symposium 2026

Examining The City Of Philadelphia’S Proposition Bill #250768 “Stop Trashing Our Air Act” By Addressing Waste Management And Environmental Justice Challenges In Chester City, Pennsylvania And The Philadelphia Region, Dylan Wascavage

Student Publications

Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Reburns In Western Us Forests, Jackson M. Boyle

Student Publications

Tracking Phenological Shifts Of Black Guillemots Cepphus Grylle In The Gulf Of Maine, Jocelyn L. Little

Student Publications

Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) As Bioindicators For Atlantic Herring (Clupea Harengus) Distribution In The Gulf Of Maine, Logan R. Becker

Student Publications

Pom Poko: When Nature Speaks Out Against Urbanization, Sabrina Huynh

CAFE Symposium 2025

A Recycling Case Study: Gettysburg College, Luke Francek

CAFE Symposium 2025

How Did The Deer Cross The Road? Reducing Habitat Fragmentation And Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Deaths Through Connective Conservation In The South Mountain Region, Pennsylvania, Jack B. Joiner, Emily R. Kreider, Thomas H. Manning, Madison E. Rowell

Student Publications

Green Defense: Evaluating Potentials And Limitations In Transitioning Military Vehicles To Clean Energy, Aurora M. V. Bellingeri, Danielle M. Drumm, Zoe S. Koutsokostas

Student Publications

Reimagining Gettysburg: Enhancing Walkability And Bikeability In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Gabriella Germano, Elif Ozturan, Jeanne-Marie Thomas

Student Publications

Gettysburg On The Go: A Bike Share Program For A Greener Gettysburg, Rachelle Dale, Emily Hazelrigg, Mishael F. Ohanwadi, Anastasia Volciak

Student Publications

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

CAFE Symposium 2024

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

Student Publications

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

Gettysburg College Headquarters

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

Student Publications

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

Student Publications

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

Student Publications

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

CAFE Symposium 2023

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

CAFE Symposium 2023

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 12, Spring 2023

Gettysburg Economic Review

Up In Smoke: Wildfires And Economic Growth, Nicholas Silvis

Gettysburg Economic Review

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

Gettysburg Economic Review

The Domestic Impact Of International Shaming: Evidence From Climate Change And Human Rights, Faradj Koliev, Douglas D. Page, Jonas Tallberg

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Voluntary Carbon Market: Managing The Private Provision Of Public Goods, Atticus Maloney

Gettysburg College Headquarters

Indigenous Pennsylvania: Past, Present, And Future, Sarah E. Gilsoul

Student Publications

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

Student Publications

Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs In Coral Reefs: A Global Analysis, Megan E. Keene

Student Publications

Estimating Fish Diet In Lake Turkana, Kenya, Julia G. Sharapi

Student Publications