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Susquehanna University solar array powers 30% of the campus’ operational needs. Now students are trying to determine how the 12,000 panels might be supporting the microhabitats that have grown beneath […]
Susquehanna University solar array powers 30% of the campus’ operational needs. Now students are trying to determine how the 12,000 panels might be supporting the microhabitats that have grown beneath and around them — specifically for spiders.
So far, Matt Persons, Charles B. Degenstein professor of biology at Susquehanna University, and two of his students — Andrew Pisano ’27, an ecology major from Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Kaylee Rathbone ’27, a biomedical sciences major from Mannington Township, New Jersey — have collected more than 1,000 spiders from the array. They do so in a very uniform way, Pisano said, during the day and at night.
“We’re in each plot, which is about 8 meters by 5 meters, for about an hour and we sample as much as we can either by hand or using fine mesh sweep nets,” Pisano explained. The spiders are placed into vials and then sent to Persons’ lab for official identification.
Only about half of the known spider species build webs, and the structure of the solar array gives those spiders the perfect framework to build their homes, Persons said.
“We’re trying to understand how these habitats are different than a traditional agricultural field, which is usually what [a solar array] replaces, versus a forest environment versus a golden rod habitat, so we are doing some comparisons to see what’s there,” he said. “Here we have an area of land that isn’t sprayed and can act as a nursery for a lot of arthropods that can then disperse out to surrounding agricultural systems. Nobody’s done research on this to test it, but it’s likely that there are higher populations of pollinators and spiders in these systems.”
The project is Rathbone’s first research experience.
“It really gives me an opportunity to explore what doing research here is like and use the scientific process to discover what does work and what doesn’t work,” she said. “We’ve had quite a few meetings already this summer to reevaluate our processes and it’s been a valuable learning experience.”
Solar installations have increased in Pennsylvania over the past several years, according to the Pennsylvania Utility Commission, including arrays placed on land once used for agricultural purposes, “but those two things aren’t necessarily exclusive of one another,” Persons said.
“With thoughtful design and management, these sites can support a surprising diversity of microhabitats,” he said, “creating a patchwork of conditions that can benefit a range of plant and animal species.”
Persons and his students are also using their research as an opportunity to identify various spider species that call Pennsylvania home, a study that’s never really been undertaken.
“There are over 4,000 species of spiders in the United States, but we don’t really know how many there are in Pennsylvania,” Persons said. “The last survey that was done in the state was in 1942, so we’re hoping to add to the data currently held by the State Museum of Pennsylvania.”
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