Four students completed projects in climate adaptation science for the 2024 SURF program, investigating the effects of ocean warming on cleaner wrasse behavior, finding the best soil amendments for encouraging native Hawaiian plant regeneration, modeling the optimal pathway for using the RAD framework on Hawaiʻi biomes, and using non-intrusive methods to investigate climate effects of coral growth rates.
Forest management
Our May “Slice of PI-CASC” seminar will be presented by Emma Yuen and Ryan Okano from Hawaiʻi’s DLNR, discussing the climate science they have applied to resource management efforts on land and sea, and what new information is needed.
Our February “Slice of PI-CASC” seminar will be presented by Dr. Rebecca Ostertag, who will share her group’s work with designing climate resilient ecosystems as part of their forest restoration efforts on Hawaiʻi Island and applications to similar locations across the Pacific.
PI: Patrick Hart, Professor of Biology, UH Hilo
Co-Is: Amanda Navine, TCBES, UH Hilo; Ann Tanimoto-Johnson, TCBES, UH Hilo; Bret Mossman, Hawaiʻi Island Avian Technician, DOFAW
Funded: FY2023
PI: Noa Kekuawa Lincoln, Associate Researcher, CTAHR, UH Mānoa
Co-Is: Udi Mandel Butler, Climate Action Program Manager, Hawaiʻi Climate Change Commission; Kū Kahakalau, Executive Director, Kū-A-Kanaka
Funded: FY2023
Our May “Slice of PI-CASC” seminar will be presented by Dr. Dennis LaPointe who will discuss how climate-induced drying may influence the invasion of mosquitoes, and the diseases they carry, into critical native bird habitats.
PI: Michala Phillips, Research Ecologist, USGS Pacific Island Ecosystem Research Center
Co-Is: Corie Yanger, Botanical Research Technician, USGS PIERC; Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, Asst. Professor of Geography, WRRC, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2023
Four students completed projects in climate adaptation science for the 2023 SURF program, investigating how forests vegetation shifts in response to climate change, the connection between climate and humpback whale health, whether added nutrients can improve coral thermal resilience, and sea-level rise impacts to community infrastructure.
PI: Tamara Ticktin, Professor of Botany, UH Mānoa
Co-Is: Clay Trauernicht, Associate Specialist, UH Mānoa; Tim Chambers, Center for Plant Conservation Officer, ANRPO; Lucas Fortini, Research Ecologist, PIERC, USGS; Julia Douglas, School of Life Sciences, UH Mānoa
Funded: FY2023
PI-CASC and Alaska CASC scientists and students came together in November 2022 in Hawaiʻi for a projects site visit.