SELINSGROVE — Susquehanna University students are studying whether the school’s solar array is creating hidden habitat for spiders. The array has 12,000 panels and powers about 30% of the campus’ operational needs.
Susquehanna says biology professor Matt Persons and two students have collected more than 1,000 spiders from the area so far. Students Andrew Pisano and Kaylee Rathbone are sampling plots during the day and at night. The spiders are then taken to a lab for identification.
Persons says the panels may create useful microhabitats for spiders, pollinators, and other arthropods. He says the research could also add to Pennsylvania spider data, which has not had a major statewide survey since 1942.
