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Abstract

Although the process by which galaxies obtain the gas needed for star-formation is amongst the most fundamental processes related to the formation of baryonic structure in the universe, there is very little in the way of empirical evidence with which to constrain theoretical models. In particular, the postulated environmental dependencies of this process, although widely modeled, remain largely unconstrained. In this work, I present the first detailed, quantitative analysis of the environmental effects on the process of gas-fueling in which the relevant effects of the galaxy - intergalactic medium interaction have been isolated from other potential environmental influences. In the context of this analysis, a new robust method for selecting morphologically defined samples of galaxies by photometric proxies is developed, as well a powerful new method for correcting the UV/optical emission of samples of spiral galaxies for the effects of attenuation by dust located in their disks. Combining these tools with the data from the GAMA survey, in particular the galaxy group catalog, I present a detailed analysis of the environmental dependencies of gas-fueling. The results obtained require a fundamental re-evaluation of the assumptions concerning the fueling of satellite galaxies and the effects of active galactic nuclei.