The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University announced Aug. 16 that the Delaware Watershed Research Fund will be awarding Shippensburg University professor Claire Jantz a nearly $500,000 grant.

Jantz, a geography and earth science professor , received a $486,000 grant to study changes of the Delaware River Watershed. Jantz will work with a team of SU professors, students and researchers in the region to study the effects of numerous, mostly human-caused, environmental factors in the region including climate change, land cover change, pollution and other impacts to the watershed.

To monitor the effects in the region, Jantz and her team will use computer models, which are being supplied via the $500,000 grant.

“We have computer based models of land use change in the area that we are currently developing. We have simulation models of tree species sustainability,” Jantz said. She went on to explain that these models simulate the sustainability of the ecosystems in the area.

“It’s a big modeling project so, to some people, it might not be as thrilling as a field research project,” Jantz said. However, Jantz said the research is imperative to the well-being of the ecosystems and people inhabiting the 13,500 square mile watershed, which spans across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.

Money from the grant will also be spent on a variety of software to monitor factors like the quality of the water in order to determine the damage the numerous anthropogenic factors have had on the area.

If the water quality is altered in the area, ecosystems near the watershed could be drastically altered.

“If climate conditions aren’t right, that could cause significant changes in the forest,” Jantz said. “These factors could produce a new forest ecosystem different from the one we know now.”

Currently, Jantz and her team are focusing their research on thresholds. These thresholds show how much of a certain environmental factor the region can take.

“The long-term vision is to identify thresholds,” Jantz said. If a factor like climate change impacts the area negatively, then the impacts of climate change will affect another threshold, like land usage, ultimately making the water in the area unusable in the future, she said.

“We’re thinking ahead and wondering what the area is going to be like in 2100 or 2070,” Jantz said.

Jantz said that land cover usage and climate change are the primary areas of study for the project.

However, for Jantz, this project goes beyond studying the Delaware River Watershed.

“It also helps to raise the image of the university,” Jantz said. “There’s a perception that all we do is teach, but this is a major research project.”

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