RESEARCH

Mangrove forests and the benefits they provide to Micronesian ecosystems and communities are threatened by accelerating sea-level rise and human activities. Read this factsheet to learn more.
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A fifteen minute podcast hosted by the US Fish & Wildlife Service highlighting MCC graduate student Lauren Kapono and her work monitoring 'opihi (Cellana spp.) along the Kalaemanō shoreline of Hawaiʻi Island.
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Agriculture and agroforestry (tree cultivation) are important activities for the Marshall Islands and other small islands to ensure food security and human health, support community self-sufficiency, promote good nutrition, and serve as windbreaks to stabilize shorelines and lessen storm damage and erosion. However, climate change is posing serious challenges for growers who struggle to adapt to climate impacts including saltwater intrusion, changing precipitation and temperature patterns, and the spread of invasive species. This tool was designed to provide Marshallese agricultural producers with information and resources that will help them adapt their growing practices to changing climate conditions.
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While global sea-level rise concerns many Pacific Island communities, local sea levels are affected by many factors, including basin-wide phenomena like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), making for higher or even lower water levels. This online tool provides an outlook of monthly sea level anomalies for the next one to two seasons (out to six months), combining sea level forecasts with astronomical tide predictions to provide more accurate predictions of coastal water level compared to tide predictions alone. Such forecasts may enable decision makers and local resource managers to prepare for unusual water levels, both high and low, in their areas.
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Watch this UH Sea Grant's Voice of the Sea episode featuring MCC students Kamala Anthony and Cherie Kauahi on their loko iʻa (traditional Hawaiian fishpond) climate adaptation projects.
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The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC), PI-CASC’s partner, released a film highlighting MCC supported collaborative restoration of loko iʻa (traditional Hawaiian fishponds) in Keaukaha developed through their Hawaiian Islands Terrestrial Adaptation Initiative (HITAI).
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A Big Island Video News report on the Hawaiʻi County Council Environmental Management committee presentation with MCC researchers Louise Economy and Tracy Wiegner to learn more about Staphylococcus in Hilo Bay.
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Coral reefs across the Pacific are coping with changing environmental conditions as ocean temperatures rise and local stressors (like pollution and sedimentation) affect coastlines. While coral reefs are sensitive to changes in their environment, some reefs are more resilient, or able to recover from disturbance more quickly, than others. These maps are the results of gathering information on reef resilience and vulnerability at 78 reef locations throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to inform local coastal management and decision making.
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