Due to all the changes in the economy recently the goal of the study is to see how specific macroeconomic factors have affected the housing market in the past to gain some insight into where the overall housing market may trend in the future. This paper offers evidence from a state- level panel data analysis from 1975-2021 on the effects that macroeconomic factors have on home prices in the United States. This analysis focuses on state and country level variables to determine their effect on the housing price index. The results produced by this model indicate that increases in the unemployment rates, the annual supply of new homes, and the federal funds effective rate are connected to decreases in the housing price index. While increases in state minimum wages and inflation can be attributed to increases in home prices. All the variables in the model are statistically significant at the 1% level and the model has an R-squared of .89.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the United States’ current government spending on foreign assistance is efficient for the economic development of the recipient countries. The relationship between foreign aid and economic growth is a highly debated topic, as evidenced by its literature. Some believe that qualitative factors such as institutional quality may be the driving force behind economic growth in developing countries. Others have proved that factors such as institutional quality have no effect on the economic development of a nation at all. In my study, I analyze the relationship between disbursed U.S. economic aid and GDP per capita growth in developed countries from 2002 to 2021. I take into account the potential impact of institutional quality on the economic growth of developing nations. My results showed a positive relationship between GDP per capita growth and foreign aid. Additionally, institutional quality may have a positive influence on the economic growth of receiving countries. I used a primary regression to create three sub-regressions that show how institutional quality affects each income level: low income, lower-middle income, and upper-middle income. What I found is that voice and accountability affect low-income countries, rule of law affects lower-middle-income countries, and political stability and control of corruption affect upper-middle-income countries. This breakdown may be used to inform policymakers in the United States to reconsider their approach to foreign aid disbursement.

The theme of my poster is Equitable Environmental Literacy among BIPOC students. Environmental literacy has four main components, knowledge, affective attitudes, cognitive skills, and behavior. There is currently inequitable education occurring within natural resources. There is an increasing need to create an environmentally literate society that is prepared to address demanding and emerging environmental issues worldwide. Educational programming is not equipping BIPOC communities with the knowledge to participate in planning, management, and decision making processes. At its core, this is environmental injustice. To further investigate gaps in natural resources, we created a survey to measure student interest in the environment. A pilot survey was conducted during the summer of 2021 and UB students from both PSU and UVM were surveyed on pre-watershed science initiatives. We hypothesized that BIPOC students were less likely to select “agree” and “strongly agree” when answering questions related to having an environmental job and pursuing environmental education in college. The surveys were conducted via google forms and the students identity was kept anonymous. We then combined all answers into a large data set and the analysis was conducted in R. We created bar graphs which show each question asked and the breakdown of the student demographics. The pilot survey indicated that BIPOC students did not rate “agree” or “strongly agree” when answering the questions “I plan to study the environment in college” and “I plan to work in an environmental field”. This further validates current research that indicates BIPOC students are less likely to pursue environmental interests. The next steps in this research are to conduct the same survey during the summer of 2022. During the summer, students will participate in a wide variety of watershed science initiatives. It is our hope that this will stimulate natural resource interest among students in the program.

Several threats to herpetofaunal species such as habitat loss and the increase of diseases have decreased their global populations. Climate change is projected to shift many species of plants and animals into cooler regions. Within the last century there has been an ~80% decline in species due to habitat loss, climate change, and disease. Most notably is chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which keratinized the skin of herpetofauna. Microhabitat complexity is linked to their microbiome diversity and fitness. Our study was designed to evaluate the influence of both macro- and microhabitat on herpetofaunal epidermal microbiome. At three sites (Rugar Woods, Paul Smiths Visitor’s Interpretive Center, and Lewis Preserve Wildlife Management Area), we surveyed herpetofauna using hand capture techniques and collected microbial samples by swabbing the skin of individuals. Bacteria were plated to determine morphotype richness and serial dilutions were made in order to isolate the most prominent colonies. Microbial DNA was extracted, followed by a 16s rRNA polymerization chain reaction (PCR), and Sanger sequencing to confirm microbial species. Herpetofauna epithelial microbiome included Serratia sp., Pantoea sp., Pseudomonas sp., and Sphingobacteria. Herpetofaunal richness was the same across all macro-sites (S=3), with red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) being ubiquitous and spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens), spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), American toads (Anaxyrus americanus), and garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) being rare. The most common microhabitat under which herpetofauna were found was coarse woody debris (CWD) and in terms of silviculture, single tree cuts and control sites had more animals than did other treatments such as clearcuts. Bacterial morphotype richness was greatest at Lewis Preserve and among red-backed salamanders and leopard frogs. Our bacterial species were common to herpetofaunal microbiomes and many support antifungal activity. Our findings suggested that a minimally managed wildlife management area with mature mixed forest, extensive floodplain, and riparian edge will support a diverse herpetofaunal community with high bacterial morphotype richness, affording greater defense against disease.

Microplastics, defined as being <5mm in size, have been recently identified as marine pollutants of significant concern. Concerns have arisen due to their persistence, ubiquity and potential to alter physiology and behavior that reduces reproduction and survival. As this is an emerging threat, the potential damage posed by microplastics to freshwater ecosystems has not yet been fully investigated and best practices for characterization are being developed. The purpose of this study was to learn the process of microplastics characterization in Lake Champlain and pilot the use of Nile red stain for quantification. In fall 2022, I dissected three fish (2 tench (Tinca tinca), 1 rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus)), isolated microplastics using wet peroxide oxidation, and characterizing them under the microscope. All particulate in fish were characterized as microfibers of small size (125-355um). Fiber load in tench, a larger fish, was 26% greater than that of rudd. Moving forward we plan to record this process for educational purposes and further develop a Nile Red staining procedure to expedite microplastic quantification.

Bats are taxonomically and ecologically diverse species who provide many ecosystem services. They are also sensitive to many anthropogenic stressors (e.g., urbanization, water quality, changes in climate), so changes in bat populations have historically been early sentinels of disturbance, facilitating focused conservation efforts. Unfortunately, following the introduction of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in 2006 in New York, the nation has seen variable but drastic declines in bat populations. The relationship between bats and their habitats is not well understood because they are wide-ranging and require multiple critical habitat types, but research is needed in order to meet conservation targets. In fall 2022, we assessed the abundance and diversity of bat species between forested, rural, and urban habitat types in northern New York. Each site was surveyed once using an ultrasonic bat detector thirty minutes after sunset, the most active feeding time for bat species. We hypothesized that bat abundance would be highest in the urban setting, with infrastructure providing increased roosting opportunity. However, highest species abundance and richness were both found at the forested site, likely because it was surveyed the earliest in the season. It was also the route with the most suitable habitat based on prior research suggesting bats need water for feeding and forests for roosting. The forested and rural sites showed 28.6% similarity, the rural and urban sites showed no similarity, and the forested and urban sites had 50% similarity. Understanding the disproportionate value that forest habitats provide for bat populations, we suggest considering conservation efforts which prioritize these ecosystems and link them to important riparian corridors.

Forest composition and structure is a primary determinant of wildlife community patterns. However, disturbances such as selective harvesting, wildfires, and maple-sugaring operations, along with seasonal changes in habitat, may also influence wildlife species richness and abundance at the landscape-level. The Altona Flat Rock, a sandstone pavement barrens, contains Pinus rigida (Pitch Pine)- and Pinus banksiana (Jack Pine)-dominated forest types nested within the largely northern hardwood dominated landscape of upstate New York. Sections of these forest types have undergone recent disturbance (i.e., wildfire in the Jack Pine, maple sugaring and harvest in the northern hardwoods), changing structure and/or composition in those areas. The objective of this study was to evaluate wildlife habitat use over time and space across these adjacent, but very different, forests. Since spring 2018, we have used game cameras to continuously monitor wildlife in the hardwood-dominated forests surrounding the Flat Rock (n = 12). Concurrently, we have also been monitoring wildlife use in the Pitch Pine (n = 4) and Jack Pine barrens (n = 8). The most ubiquitous herbivore across all 3 sites was Odocoileus virginianus (White-tailed Deer), while Canis latrans (Eastern Coyote) and Lepus americanus (Snowshoe Hare) were most abundant in the Jack Pine forest type. Interestingly, Sciurus carolinensis (Gray Squirrel) and Sciurus vulgaris (Red Squirrel) were found almost exclusively in either the hardwood or Jack Pine forests, respectively, suggesting differences in dietary needs/preferences. Species richness varied dramatically across forest types, with northern hardwood, Jack Pine, and Pitch Pine richness values of 20, 31, and 2, respectively. Disturbance in the Jack Pine stand initially decreased richness, however, over the duration of the study there was little difference between the disturbed (26 species) and undisturbed (22 species) Jack Pine stands. We have observed slightly lower species richness in the mature hardwood forest (13 species) versus the young hardwood forest (19 species). Further analysis will determine temporal (seasonal and diel) wildlife diversity patterns. This study will provide wildlife and forest managers insights into the influence of forest type, and impacts of disturbance and management practices, on wildlife habitat.

To date, educational and economic factors have caused significant variation of tuition prices of private universities for the 2019 and 2020 fiscal educational year. This paper offers a cross-sectional model observing the causation of increasing college costs across the United States with underlying support from the human capital theory of education. The analysis at hand focuses on educational and institutional variables and their effects on the associated tuition costs for only private institutions. A series of STATA econometric tests were completed in order to determine a model, which further tests were then run for deeper analysis.

Ricardo’s Distribution theory (1817) proposes that, as the economy faces diminishing profits/returns on capital, there would be an increasing shortage of investments. Income inequality exacerbates this problem, by causing income not to be reinvested back in production timely. Therefore, the result is a stagnant economy, where economic growth is significantly slowed down. Literatures on the relationship between income inequality or overall inequality, and economic growth, which is usually measured by GDP growth, have revealed different and robust results. Forbes, 2000 and Partridge, 1997 found a significantly positive correlation between income inequality and GDP growth. However, Tabellini et al, 1994 produced a significant and negative correlation. Interestingly, Squire et al, 1998 found no significant relationship between aggregate inequality and GDP growth, but a significantly negative relationship between poverty and GDP growth. More recently, Brueckner and Lederman, 2017 found a significantly negative impact of income inequality on GDP transitional growth in countries with high initial incomes. Nonetheless, overall, recent literature has been leaning towards the hypothesis that the relationship between income inequality and GDP growth is non-linear. This paper is going to empirically study 146 countries in the world over 27 years from 1992 to 2018, to confirm that the relationship between income inequality and GDP growth is non-linear as suggested in recent literature. Moreover, this research will show that the effects of income inequality on GDP growth is heterogeneous; the impact of income inequality on economic growth is more positive on high income countries than on lower income countries. The method used is regression that aims to explain the GDP movements of countries, in terms of consumption, export, capital formation, poverty, and GINI coefficient. This research is at preliminary level; there can be further improvements to the model.

The primary goal of this study is to observe the relationship between the fluctuation of the oil price and the increasing number of sales of electric vehicles based on data from 20 developed and developing countries. As the number of electric vehicles on the market is growing, the demand in the world oil market is declining slightly and, as a result, oil prices are also declining due to several factors. Consumer theory tells us that oil prices could decline due to a rise in the number of electric vehicles sold. Electric vehicles can minimize carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants even when considering indirect emissions from power production and battery generation. Soon, the world may start banning regular gasoline vehicles as a part of the solution to climate change which has already started in Norway. The result shows us there is a slight negative relationship between the oil price and sales of electric vehicles. I can expect that the sales of electric vehicles will keep increasing and after a certain time, it will become a perfect substitute for regular gasoline vehicles.