Research Projects

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

Airplane view looking down along a line of small, tree-covered islands surrounded by shallow lagoons and ocean waves

Enhancing Stakeholder Capacity for Coastal Inundation Assessment in the Marshall Islands

PI: Dean Gesch, Research Scientist, USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Funded: FY2020

Open forest view of taller trees and lower ferns

Machine learning approaches to improve projections of future climate in Hawai‘i

PI: Tom Giambelluca, Professor of Geography, UH Mānoa
Graduate Scholar: Yusuke Hatanaka, Department of Computer and Data Science, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2020

Firefighters tend a grassy fire break line in front of burning brush, with a blackened, smoky landscape behind

Future of fire in the Pacific Islands: Towards a national synthesis for wildland fire under a changing climate

PI: Christian Giardina, Research Ecologist, Inst. of Pacific Islands Forestry, US Forest Service
Co-PI: Alyssa Anderson, Fire Post-doctoral Fellow, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2020

A very dry landscape with brown grassy hills and brown, dead trees

Scaling up the Hawai‘i Drought Knowledge Exchange

PI: Christian Giardina, Research Ecologist, Inst. of Pacific Islands Forestry, US Forest Service
Co-PI: Abby Frazier, Research Fellow, East-West Center, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2020

Student examines plants along a greenery-bordered path

2020 SURF Projects

Three students completed projects in climate adaptation science for the 2020 SURF program, investigating salinity tolerance in coastal plants, fire-plant interactions, and new techniques to improve reforestation efforts.

A shallow valley is covered with dead brown grass and a scattering of dead and dying tree trunks.

Malo‘o ka lani, wela ka honua (When the sky is dry, the earth is parched)

PI: Christian Giardina, Research Ecologist, Inst. of Pacific Islands Forestry, US Forest Service
Co-PI: Katie Kamelamela, Postdoctoral Researcher, Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests
Funded: FY2020

A foot-long black, shiny flat fish with a high top fin is held for the camera

Understanding nutrient transport through streamflow and fish populations

PI: Tim Grabowski, Research Fish Biologist, Cooperative Fisheries Unit, USGS
Funded: FY2020

Hilly barren landscape with low burnt browned grass

Biochar as a mitigation tool for soil rehabilitation in Guam’s badlands and savannah grasslands

PI: Mohammad Golabi, Professor of Soil Science, University of Guam
CARM Graduate Scholar: Patrick Keeler, Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Guam
Funded: FY2020

A small reef fish, with bright yellow rings around the eyes.

How will changing reefscapes affect the prevalence of ciguatera on Hawaiian reefs?

PI: Tim Grabowski, Fish Biologist, Hawai‘i Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, USGS/Adjunct Professor of Marine Science, UH Hilo
MCC Graduate Scholar: Nikola Rodriguez, Tropical Conservation Biology & Environmental Science, UH Hilo
Funded: FY2020

A small, brown bird sits on the branch of a tree

Development of an early warning system for climate-change related invasion by mosquitoes into Hakalau Forest NWR

PI: Patrick Hart, Professor of Biology, UH Hilo
MCC Graduate Scholar: Stephanie Mladinich, Tropical Conservation Biology & Environmental Science, UH Hilo
Funded: FY2020

Image looking up the trunk of a light-barked tree

Comparing arbuscular mycorrhizal diversity among different life stages of Intsia bijuga (Colebr.) Kuntze in Guam’s Limestone Forests

PI: Alexander Kerr, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Guam
CARM Graduate Scholar: Charles "CJ" Paulino, Environmental Science, University of Guam
Funded: FY2020

RESEARCH