HIMB researcher discovers deep sea sharks are buoyant

In a study published recently, scientists from UH Mānoa and the University of Tokyo revealed that two species of deep-sea sharks, sixgill and prickly sharks, are positively buoyant – they have to work harder to swim downward than up, and they can glide uphill for minutes at a time without using their tails.

Conventional wisdom suggests that sharks are negatively, or occasionally neutrally, buoyant. Sharks have cartilaginous skeletons, which are lower in density than bone, and they generate buoyancy via their large, oil-filled liver. Despite these adaptations, most sharks are negatively buoyant and will sink if they stop swimming. These sharks generate lift by swimming forward. It was previously thought that some deep sea sharks might be neutrally buoyant to save energy in their austere environment.

“We didn’t expect to find evidence of positive buoyancy, and ran two sets of experiments to confirm our initial observations of this phenomenon. This finding was a total surprise,” said Carl Meyer, assistant researcher at UHM’s Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and co-author of the study.

Meyer and colleagues fitted sharks with an accelerometer data logger to measure the animals’ swimming performance as they swam up and down in their deep-sea habitat. This device is like a flight data recorder for sharks, providing information about the shark’s swim speed, heading, tail beat frequency and body orientation. From this information, the researchers were able to determine whether the sharks were positively, negatively or neutrally buoyant.

To provide additional insight into the habitats used by deep-sea sharks, the researchers deployed the first ever shark-mounted camera on a deep-sea shark.

“When I first downloaded the camera, I thought it had failed because all I saw were thousands of completely black frames,” said Meyer. “Suddenly a string of images appeared with a brightly lit, alien-looking reef and strange deep-sea invertebrates. I was elated and realized that the black frames resulted from the shark swimming around too high in the water column for the camera strobe to illuminate the seabed.”

These sharks live deeper by day than by night, and the cold water in their daytime habitat may cool their swimming muscles making them sluggish swimmers. Positive buoyancy may be a physiological strategy enabling these sharks to exploit deep, cold habitats with limited food resources.

“We want to better understand why these sharks are positively buoyant,” said Meyer. “Does this trait perhaps give them a ‘stealth’ advantage during hunting, allowing them to glide motionless upward to capture prey above them in the water? Or does it help them with nightly migrations to shallower areas?”

With future studies, Meyer and colleagues hope to answer these questions by measuring the sharks’ muscle temperatures during their vertical migrations, and by fitting them with cameras in hopes of capturing on film active feeding.

To view the VIDEO of an instrumented sixgill shark release, visit http://youtu.be/jlpXOHxCBPo. (Credit: Mark Royer/UH)

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Itsumi Nakamura, Carl G. Meyer, Katsufumi Sato (2015). Unexpected Positive Buoyancy in Deep Sea Sharks, Hexanchus griseus, and a Echinorhinus cookei, PLoS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127667

– UH News story

HNEI researchers discuss: What’s the future of lithium ion batteries?

Many of us would be hard-pressed to spend a day without using a lithium-ion battery, the technology that powers our portable electronics. And with electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage for the power grid around the corner, their future appears pretty bright.

Matthieu Dubarry, HNEI Assistant Researcher and Arnaud Devie, HNEI Postdoctoral Research Fellow recently published an article for The Conversation regarding the emerging technologies which might lead to improvements for lithium-ion batteries, and the associated challenges.

Hawaii Climate Change Adaptation Committee begins work

The Hawaii State Legislature identified climate change as one of the most urgent and long-term threats to the State’s economy, sustainability, security and way of life over the next century. In 2014 it passed Act 83 in order to address the effects of climate change. Act 83 also established the Interagency Climate Adaptation Committee (ICAC), with representatives from more than a dozen state and county agencies, including SOEST Associate Dean Chip Fletcher. The ICAC is tasked with developing a statewide Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Report (SLR Report) to the legislature by the end of 2017. The committee held its first meeting on June 3.

Rep. Chris Lee, chair of the Hawaii House of Representatives Energy & Environment Committee was one of the lawmakers instrumental in the passage of Act 83. He said, “Hawaii, as the only island state in the U.S., is among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise, yet we were one of the few coastal states that had not adopted a statewide climate adaptation plan. Act 83 and the ICAC changes this.”

Dr. Fletcher presented his latest findings at the first meeting of the ICAC. Dr. Fletcher explained, “Rising sea levels, exacerbated by stronger storms, will increase coastal flooding and erosion. It will damage coastal ecosystems and infrastructure and affect tourism, agriculture, military bases and other industries. This is on top of the impacts of higher sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification.”

For more information, view the DLNR press release and video, read about it in the Big Island Now and The Garden Island, and watch the KHON2 report.

Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi fast-fill hydrogen fueling station enabling zero emission transportation

The Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) has commissioned a “fast-fill” high-pressure hydrogen fueling station at the Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi (MCBH). This state-of-the-art station was developed to support a fleet of General Motors Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles leased by the Office of Naval Research for use by Marine Corps and Navy personnel on Oʻahu.

Operational since November 2014, this fueling station was recently certified for unattended operation, allowing drivers to self-fill their cars just as they would do at any gasoline fueling station. Unattended operation will serve as a model for the installation of private stations throughout the state.

“We have been really impressed with the fill speed and control algorithms of the hydrogen station at MCBH,” said General Motors’ Hawaiʻi Site Leader Chris Colquitt. “It is exciting to experience consistent four-minute 700 bar fills.”

Added HNEI Director Richard Rocheleau, “We are excited that the MCBH hydrogen station is now servicing fast-fill by the drivers without an attendant—a first in Hawaiʻi. We hope that our research efforts will help accelerate the deployment of hydrogen stations throughout Hawaiʻi as it contributes to the Department of Defense’s energy goals.”

The development of fuel cell and hydrogen technology has been part of the U.S. Department of Energy portfolio since 1986. UH Mānoa and HNEI have been part of that program since its inception.

The project has received funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy, the State of Hawaiʻi and the Office of Naval Research.

Read more at NVG Journal and in Hydrogen Fuel News; read more about it and watch the video report in the UH System News.

Fast-Fill hydrogen fueling station enabling zero emission transportation

The Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) has commissioned a “Fast-Fill” high-pressure hydrogen fueling station at the Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i (MCBH), Kaneohe Bay. This state-of-the-art station was developed to support a fleet of General Motors Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) leased by the Office of Naval Research for use by Marine Corps and Navy personnel on O‘ahu. Operational since November 2014, this station was recently certified for unattended operation, allowing drivers to self-fill their cars just as they would do at any gasoline fueling station. Unattended operation will serve as a model for the installation of private stations throughout the state.

Said General Motors’ Hawai‘i Site Leader Chris Colquitt, “We have been really impressed with the fill speed and control algorithms of the hydrogen station at MCBH. It is exciting to experience consistent 4-minute 700 bar fills. I am confident the Department of Defense (DoD) drivers of the FCEVs will be delighted as well. The algorithms to control flow have done a really good job of ensuring tank temperature thresholds are maintained without stopping fills before completion. On top of all that, the station and site aesthetic came out really well.”

Added HNEI Director Richard Rocheleau, “We are excited that the MCBH hydrogen station is now servicing Fast Fills by the drivers without an attendant – a first in Hawai‘i. We are also pleased that General Motors is satisfied with the performance of the station. We hope that our research efforts will help accelerate the deployment of hydrogen stations throughout Hawai‘i as it contributes to the DoD’s energy goals.”

The fuel cells in these vehicles work by using hydrogen to create electricity that is then used to power an electric motor. The only emission is water. Successful hydrogen fueling operations here will help identify zero emission sustainable transportation solutions. The development of fuel cell and hydrogen technology has been part of the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) portfolio since 1986. UH Mānoa and HNEI have been part of that program since its inception.

A major challenge for hydrogen production and dispensing stations is the cost of hydrogen at the nozzle. In this project, HNEI is conducting research to assess the technical performance and economic value of an electrolyzer-based hydrogen production system in a 350/700 bar Fast-Fill (under 5 minutes) fueling station. The technical analysis will include component efficiencies under various operating scenarios and the long-term durability of major components. The economic analysis will determine the daily operating cost of the station and the overall cost benefits of producing hydrogen. The dual fill pressure capability will allow this station to service both light duty vehicles that have largely been designed to use high pressure (700 bar) hydrogen storage and larger fleet vehicles such as buses which usually are designed for lower pressure (350 bar).

The MCBH Fast-Fill hydrogen station is part of the Hawai‘i Hydrogen Power Park project established by HNEI to support the US DOE’s Technology Validation Program. The initial funding from the US DOE Fuel Cell Technology Office was used to procure the electrolyzer and a low-pressure fueling capability. Additional funding was received from the Office of Naval Research to expand the capability to include the 700 bar Fast Fill to support the Equinox FCEV demonstration at MCBH on O‘ahu. The State of Hawai‘i also provided funding that was used for project management and the installation of equipment.

A short video about this project can be viewed here, http://youtu.be/JJKduL6qIOI

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The project has received funding support from the US DOE, the State of Hawai‘i and the Office of Naval Research.

ABOUT GENERAL MOTORS CO.
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at http://www.gm.com.

ABOUT MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAI‘I (MCBH)
To provide facilities, programs and services in direct support of units, individuals and families in order to enhance and sustain combat readiness for all operating forces and tenant organizations aboard MCB Hawai‘i. For more information visit, http://www.mcbhawaii.marines.mil/.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I
The University of Hawai‘i (UH) was established in 1907 and its campuses are all fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The UH System comprises all public higher education in the State and provides a rich array of associate, baccalaureate, graduate, and professional degrees and certificates to about 60,000 students through seven community colleges, two baccalaureate campuses and a major research university that holds land-, space- and sea-grant designations. For more information, visit www.hawaii.edu.

ABOUT HAWAI‘I NATURAL ENERGY INSTITUTE (HNEI)
The Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute is an organized research unit of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM). The Institute performs research, conducts testing and evaluation, and manages public-private partnerships across a broad range of renewable and enabling technologies to reduce the State of Hawai‘i’s dependence on fossil fuel.

DISCLAIMER
The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and are not to be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government or of any other Party involved in this Research and Demonstration Project. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.

— UH News Story

Public school gardens and sustainable health result from UH teamwork

The Jahren Lab at UH Mānoa has partnered with the STEM Pre-Academy, a program in the UH Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, to foster inspiration in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in public middle schools. Through teacher-driven collaboration, the team developed and implemented a research- and technology-based curriculum.

Combining the Jahren Lab’s primary research focuses of environmental science and nutrition, the UH team developed a three-part outreach program for middle school students – from discovering the nutritional and environmental importance of locally sourced fruits and vegetables; to designing their own self-watering planters and transplanting their vegetables and herbs in the school garden; and finally, using their harvest to construct a healthy meal with a local chef.

“With food transportation and processing accounting for 30 percent of energy use within the U.S. food system, the adoption of diets based on locally sourced, unprocessed whole foods has the potential to significantly improve the health of our environment and our citizens,” said A. Hope Jahren, a Professor at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), who leads the Jahren Lab.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Hawaiian Islands, where a majority of supermarket food is produced thousands of miles away, resulting in substantial fossil fuel emissions and higher costs for fresh fruits and vegetables.

“We wanted to concurrently address both public and environmental health in educational programs by demonstrating how such diets not only improve our well-being, but the economic and environmental health of our local communities as well,” said Josh Bostic, a research technician in the Jahren Lab and driving force behind this collaborative project.

Bostic and Lori Hashimoto, STEM Pre-Academy program manager and lead engineer, decided that to affect healthy lifestyle changes there’s no better place to start than in schools, where children are still forming the opinions and habits that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

“Being able to expand the educational value of the school-based garden with nutritional expertise brings greater value to students both on and off the school campus,” said Hashimoto.

The resulting pilot project, completed at Jarrett Middle School, was a great success.

“My students gained useful life long knowledge from this pilot project. They really enjoyed the hands on activities like making the self-watering plant containers. But their favorite activity was placing their plants in their garden to see it grow,” said Sue Erickson, a P.E./Health Teacher at Jarrett Middle School.

Erickson will continue the school garden project and plans to incorporate similar learning activities in Physical Education classes next year.

Further, the Jahren Lab and the STEM Pre-Academy also intend to extend their collaboration to establish similar programs in schools across the state. This summer, the team plans to design a multi-media based project guide which will include an interactive video series on healthy eating in Hawai‘i, an engineering design lesson on constructing self-watering planters, and helpful advice on establishing and maintaining school-based gardens for growing fruits and vegetables.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside STEM Pre-Academy and Jarrett Middle School to spread our love of plants and nutrition to classrooms across the state,” said Bostic.

— UH News Story

R/V Kilo Moana hosts deep-sea Trials for Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE

The final phase of the $2 million Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE is underway in the open ocean off Hawaii on SOEST’s R/V Kilo Moana. An all-star team of oceanographers, marine technicians, XPRIZE staffers and five finalist teams are headed out to sea for the culmination of a global competition to create accurate and affordable ocean pH sensors.

The remaining teams successfully completed two previous rounds of testing to measure the precision and stability of their sensors and were selected by a panel of judges to advance to deep-sea trials.

During deep-sea testing, each sensor will attempt to accurately measure pH at depths of up to 3,000 meters. The efforts of these teams, both during and after this competition, will help revolutionize our understanding of one of the ocean’s greatest threats: acidification.

Read more on Huffington Post and watch the report on KITV.

Comet Wild 2: A window into the birth of the solar system?

When a team of scientists from SOEST and the University of California-Berkeley investigated the oxygen isotope and mineral composition of the dust and rock from comet Wild 2 they found an unexpected combination of material — deepening the mystery of Wild 2’s past.

Our solar system, and other planetary systems, started as a disk of microscopic dust, gas and ice around the young Sun. The amazing diversity of objects in the solar system today—the planets, moons, asteroids and comets—was made from this primitive dust.

NASA’s Stardust mission returned to Earth with samples of comet Wild 2, a comet that originated outside the orbit of Neptune and was subsequently kicked closer to Earth’s orbit in 1974, when Jupiter’s gravity altered Wild 2’s orbit.

Lead author, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology Assistant Researcher Ryan Ogliore, reported, “The comet’s nucleus today is made up of small rocks and ice, separated by fractions of an inch, that originally formed billions of miles apart. Some rocks have seen temperatures above 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but adjacent ice has been kept close to absolute zero for billions of years. Every tiny grain we look at has its own fascinating story to tell.”

“So, now we ask the question: Does the fine-grained dust from comet Wild 2 represent a diverse sampling of many inner-solar-system objects that were transported to the outer solar system, or in fact, the raw starting materials of the solar system?” said Ogliore.

Read more on Raising Islands, SEN and NanoWerk.com.

Comet Wild 2: A window into the birth of the solar system?

Our solar system, and other planetary systems, started as a disk of microscopic dust, gas, and ice around the young Sun. The amazing diversity of objects in the solar system today – the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets – was made from this primitive dust.

NASA’s Stardust mission returned to Earth with samples of comet Wild 2, a comet that originated outside the orbit of Neptune and was subsequently kicked closer to Earth’s orbit in 1974 when Jupiter’s gravity altered Wild 2’s orbit.

A team of scientists from University of Hawai‘i – Mānoa (UHM) and University of California – Berkeley, led by Ryan Ogliore, Assistant Researcher at UHM’s Hawai‘i Institute for Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP), investigated the oxygen isotope and mineral composition of the comet dust returned from Wild 2.

Before Stardust returned, scientists thought that everything it brought back from the comet would be either this primitive dust or circumstellar grains – rocks and minerals that formed around other stars. This was not the case.

In a study published recently in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Ogliore and his colleagues discovered that the larger-sized dust appears to be similar to rocks found in primitive meteorites called chondrites. The smaller-sized dust, on the other hand, displays the entire range of known oxygen isotopic compositions that have been measured for objects from the inner solar system (from the Sun to the asteroid belt).

This unexpected combination of material has deepened the mystery of Wild 2’s past.

Fortunately, the team has a method to address that. Processing of material in the inner solar system should alter the abundance of circumstellar grains and volatile elements in the fine-grained dust.

“If the fine-grained material is enriched in circumstellar grains and not depleted in volatiles, we can say with certainty that we are looking at primitive solar system dust,” said Ogliore. “If circumstellar grains are not over-abundant compared to meteorites, and volatiles are depleted, we can say with certainty that we are looking at a very diverse sample of fine-grained inner solar system material in the comet.”

Reflecting on the complex life history of comet Wild 2’s constituent material, Ogliore said, “The comet’s nucleus today is made up of small rocks and ice, separated by fractions of an inch, that originally formed billions of miles apart. Some rocks have seen temperatures above 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, but adjacent ice has been kept close to absolute zero for billions of years. Every tiny grain we look at has its own fascinating story to tell.”

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Ogliore, R.C., Nagashima, K., Huss, G.R., Westphal, A.J., Gainsforth, Z., Butterworth, A.L., Oxygen Isotopic Composition of coarse- and fine-grained material from Comet 81P/Wild 2, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2015), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2015.04.028

Three candidates announced for Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, Director

HIMB Director candidates: From left, Ruth Gates, Michael K. Schwartz and Russell “Rusty” E. Brainard

Three finalists have been identified for the position of director of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The three candidates are scheduled to participate in campus visits that covers department discussions; meetings with senior administrators, faculty staff, students, and internal and external constituents and a public presentation.

Campus and community members, as well as the general public, are encouraged to attend.

Candidates and campus visits

Ruth Gates, visiting May 18–19
Researcher, Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, UH at Mānoa

Public Presentations

May 18, 3 p.m.: “Assisted Evolution in Corals: Harnessing Basic Science to Address an Ecological Crisis,” UH Mānoa, POST Building 723
May 19, 10:30 a.m.: “Leading HIMB as a Center of Excellence in Tropical Marine Science: Why Me, Why Now?,” Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology

Michael K. Schwartz, visiting May 26–27
Director, National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, Rocky Mountain Research Station

Public Presentations

May 26, 10:30 a.m.: “Visions for the Future: Helping HIMB Lead the Nation in Marine Biology Research and Education,” Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology
May 27, 3 p.m.: “Leading the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation: From Basic Research to Actionable Science,” UH Mānoa, POST Building 723

Russell “Rusty” E. Brainard, visiting May 28–29
Chief, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), NOAA-Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division

Public Presentations

May 28, 10:30 a.m.: “Experience for HIMB’s Future: Scientific Vision and Leadership,” Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology
May 29, 3 p.m.: “An Overview of NOAA’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division: Science to Support Ecosystem-based Management and Conservation of Coral Reefs in the Pacific Islands,” UH Mānoa, POST Building 723