Research Projects

PI-CASC supports research that generates actionable climate science within several key focus areas defined by regional stakeholder needs.

A student poses against a steeply sloping landscape with blowing mist.

Predicting the effects of climate change: ecosystem drivers in the tropical subalpine shrubland

PI: Don Drake, Professor of Botany, UH Mānoa
Co-PI: Alison Ainsworth, Department of Botany, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2013

Establishing climate change vulnerability rankings for Hawaiian native plants

PI: Lucas Fortini, Research Ecologist, USGS Pacific Islands Ecosystem Research Center
Funded: FY2013

Scenic underwater scene with a coral landscape

Projections of future coral reef communities in DOI-managed coastal areas in the Hawaiian Islands

PI: Erik Franklin, Associate Researcher, HIMB, UH Mānoa
Co-I: Rob Toonen , Researcher, HIMB, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2013

Understanding the response of native and non‐native forests to climate variability and change

PI: Thomas Giambelluca, Professor of Geography, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2013

Reconstructing climate variability in Hawaiʻi using tree rings

PI: Patrick Hart, Professor of Biology, UH Hilo
Funded: FY2013

Valuing climate change impacts on coral reef ecosystem services

PI: Kirsten Oleson, Assistant Professor of Ecological Economics, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2013

Tall trees of various species cluster around a watchtower framework.

Stand level water-use in forests of contrasting rainfall regimes

PI: Rebecca Ostertag, Professor of Biology, UH Hilo
Funded: FY2013

Epiphytes as an indicator of climate change

PI: Jonathan Price, Assoc. Professor of Geography, UH Hilo
Co-PI: Scarlett Kettwich, Department of Geography, UH Hilo
Funded: FY2013

Coral reef resilience to climate change in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands

PI: Laurie Raymundo, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Guam
Co-PI: Jeffrey Maynard, Marine Applied Research Center
Funded: FY2013

Very fine resolution dynamical downscaling of past and future climates for assessment of climate change impacts on the islands of Oʻahu and Kauaʻi

PI: Yuqing Wang, Professor of Meteorology/IPRC, UH Mānoa
Co-PI: Kevin Hamilton, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences/IPRC, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2013

Stream water pours down a small fall between fern-covered banks

Developing high-resolution rainfall change scenarios for the Hawaiian Islands using statistical downscaling

PI: Oliver Elison Timm, Research Assoc. Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science, SUNY Albany
Co-PIs: Thomas Giambelluca , Professor of Geography, UH Mānoa; Henry Diaz Meteorlogist, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
Funded: FY2012

RESEARCH