The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is highly ranked in a variety of subject areas, according to two of the premier comprehensive subject rankings in the world.

SOEST’s Department of Oceanography placed No. 7 in the U.S. and No. 17 in the world, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences ranked No. 10 in the U.S. and No. 13 in the world according to the 2023 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) released by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

In total, 14 subjects at UH Mānoa placed in the top 1% in the world (top 250 out of more than 25,000 colleges and universities worldwide) in the GRAS. Additionally, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject, released on October 26, five out of the 10 ranked UH Mānoa subjects placed in the world’s top 1% (within top 250 in the world), while four others placed in the world’s top 2% (within top 500).

“These rankings affirm our university’s commitment to excellence across a wide range of disciplines,” UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno said. “Our world-class faculty are working hard to prepare our students to be the creative and innovative leaders who will transform our islands and the world.”

Global Ranking of Academic Subjects

Fourteen UH Mānoa subjects were ranked by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, including four in the world’s top 100 and 11 in the nation’s top 70. GRAS, released on October 27, is considered one of the most comprehensive and objective rankings of world universities by subjects.

UH Mānoa was one of more than 1,900 universities in 104 countries and regions selected for the GRAS rankings, out of more than 25,000 total colleges and universities around the world. The criteria include research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality and international academic awards.

UH Mānoa’s rankings:

– Atmospheric science: No. 13 worldwide, No. 10 U.S.
– Oceanography: No. 17 worldwide, No. 7 U.S.
– Hospitality and tourism management: No. 49 worldwide, No. 18 U.S.
– Earth sciences: No. 51–75 worldwide, No. 19–30 U.S.
– Public administration: No. 101–150 worldwide, No. 47–62 U.S.
– Communication: No. 101–150 worldwide, No. 47–63 U.S.
– Education: No. 101–150 worldwide, No. 68–84 U.S.
– Ecology: No. 151–200 worldwide, No. 43–60 U.S.
– Sociology: No. 151–200 worldwide, No. 72–87 U.S.
– Geography: No. 201–300 worldwide, No. 43–69 U.S.
– Biotechnology: No. 201–300 worldwide, No. 49–66 U.S.
– Environmental science and engineering: No. 201–300 worldwide, No. 53–67 U.S.
– Political science: No. 201–300 worldwide, No. 88–114 U.S.
– Agricultural sciences: No. 401–500 worldwide, No. 56–63 U.S.

Other rankings

UH Mānoa also received these notable rankings:

• 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings: UH Mānoa placed No. 57 in the U.S. and in the No. 201–250 tier worldwide September 27, 2023
• 2024 QS World University Rankings: UH Mānoa placed No. 66 in the U.S. and No. 386 in the world June 27, 2023
• Global 2000 list by the Center for World University Rankings: UH Mānoa came in at No. 137 in the U.S. and No. 505 in the world May 15, 2023
• 2023–24 U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools rankings April 24, 2023

For more information, visit the Mānoa Institutional Research Office website.

Read more on UH News.

A new interactive sea-level rise viewer for the Territory of American Samoa was released to the public, enabling the community to visualize how the shoreline is likely to change from coastal flooding, sea-level rise, hurricane storm surge and high tides.

The visualization tool will be an essential component in future planning to assess the short and long-term impacts of rising seas and to minimize the risks to coastal communities, infrastructure and the environment.

A partnership of organizations at the University of Hawaiʻi developed the American Samoa Sea Level Rise Viewer over the course of two years, with the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) preparing the platform for the UH Sea Level Center (UHSLC) using funding from the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PI-CASC) and local extension facilitation from Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant).

While there are other sea-level rise viewers throughout the continental U.S. and Hawaiʻi, this mapping tool is of particular importance to American Samoa. Local sea levels have been rising from climate change effects at rates 2.8 times faster than the global average. Beyond that, ever since a devastating 2009 earthquake and tsunami, American Samoa has been actively sinking. This sinking, called subsidence, contributes even more relative change in water levels, with estimates suggesting roughly twice as much total sea-level rise, for these islands, by 2060 than what is predicted from climate effects alone.

Kelley Anderson Tagarino, Hawaiʻi Sea Grant extension agent based at the American Samoa Community College, along with local colleagues began to notice a distinct increase of sea levels in tide gauge data, beginning at the time of the 2009 earthquake. She ultimately created a partnership to develop an interactive tool demonstrating sea-level rise projections, engaging Phil Thompson, director of UHSLC, and his PI-CASC graduate scholar Carla Baizeau and the PacIOOS team.

Tagarino said, “I sought funding for a sea-level rise viewer to empower our community to plan for our future. Now, everyone can use the viewer to zoom in to specific areas and even individual homes, which is critical to developing resilience plans at the village level.”

The sea-level rise viewer is already being used to inform the design of the new Pago Pago airport terminal buildings.

Threatening natural, cultural resources

Beyond critical infrastructure, the high rates of sea-level rise also threaten natural and cultural resources, agriculture, water resources, critical habitat and much more.

Alphina Liusamoa, a turtle biologist with the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, is thrilled to find areas with important ecological zones included, like sea turtle nesting beaches on outer islands. “This is incredibly valuable as it allows us to comprehensively assess the risk of rising sea levels to these important nesting habitats. The tool’s interactive nature provides a valuable opportunity for education and outreach, and it can assist us in implementing conservation measures to protect these fragile ecosystems.”

Baizeau traveled from Hawaiʻi to join Tagarino and present the sea-level rise viewer to community leaders and other officials throughout the territory, and at Amerika Samoa’s 2nd Annual Disaster Resilience Summit in September.

“I was lucky enough to go to American Samoa and meet with the village chiefs and students,” said Baizeau. “Everyone was very interested in learning how to use the viewer so they can start planning for their future. It has been really gratifying to be part of this project, and I hope to continue to improve on the work we’ve started.”

Future plans for the tool include adding the effects of wind and wave activity.

For more information, contact: Kelley Anderson Tagarino (kelleyat@hawaii.edu); Cindy Knapman (lknapman@hawaii.edu); Rachel Lentz (rlentz@hawaii.edu) or info@PacIOOS.org.

Read also on UH News.

A national center of excellence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is doing much more than groundbreaking biomedical research. The Integrative Center for Environmental Microbiomes and Human Health (ICEMHH) is building infrastructure and capacity to better Hawaiʻi’s human, environmental and economic health.

“We’re designated a center of excellence for microbiome research. It means that people are really looking to Hawaiʻi to make the next vanguard discoveries in this field,” said Principal Investigator Anthony Amend, a professor with the Pacific Biosciences Research Center. “We’re making incredible discoveries about microbiomes—symbiotic microbes, things like bacteria, fungi, viruses that are inside living hosts, including us—and this underpins life on Earth as we know it.”

Watch the news story on YouTube here.

Utilizing two grants from the National Institutes of Health Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) totaling more than $21 million, ICEMHH has also developed three state-of-the-art “cores”—an insectary, a microbial genomics laboratory and a microscopy imaging center—for cross-disciplinary public impact research beyond how microbiomes impact human health.

Fruit flies, mosquitos, related diseases

The Insectary for Scientific Training and Advances in Research or InSTAR promotes research on insect microbiomes (the microorganisms of a particular site or habitat) and advanced research in medical entomology (study of insects). It offers insect-rearing equipment and services, a collaborative lab and rearing space, insect containment, and other training and insect-management services.

Amend said, “Users of this core include some of our researchers here at the university and state agencies that are trying to understand disease—how it spreads in our state and how to mitigate those risks.”

Some of those mosquito-carried diseases include zika, dengue fever and malaria.

DNA sequencing, genetic analysis

The Microbial Genomics and Analytical Laboratory or MGAL houses the necessary instrumentation to provide a wide variety of services, such as high-throughput DNA/RNA extractions (to examine molecules that make up our genomes, and to generate “barcodes” for identifying microbes), amplicon library preparation (a highly targeted approach that enables researchers to analyze genetic variation in specific genomic regions), natural product and small molecule analysis, and culturing and storage of microbial strains.

“What this core does is enable somebody to come in with a sample of an animal or a soil sample or any sort of environmental sample. They can bring it to the core, drop it off and in a matter of weeks come out with a list and a figure of all of the microbes and their genomes that are within that sample,” Amend said. “This has really revolutionized our ability to determine ecological processes that are happening on microscales.”

Photons, electrons, more in high resolution

The Microscopy Imaging Center for Research through Observation or MICRO provides researchers with state-of-the-art instrumentation, training and services for high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, optical, fluorescence, laser scanning confocal microscopy and image analysis.

“You can look at photons. You can look at electrons—all these different tools to study microbes in their host environments,” Amend said.

The three research cores have already attracted a wide variety of users.

“We host researchers from all over the world, who come to learn about microbes, to use our facilities and to take that knowledge back to their countries, to develop their own expertise,” Amend said.

At the other end of the spectrum, there was the gentleman who walked in off the street and wanted to know which microbes were in his sourdough starter—which he thought made the most delicious bread and helped to keep his skin clear. In a matter of weeks the MGAL facility had a list of all the beneficial bacteria and yeasts contained in that flour and water sample.

Sustaining excellence

COBRE grants are awarded in three sequential five-year phases.

• Phase 1 awards build capacity in an area of biomedical research through the establishment of a center of excellence that helps develop a critical mass of investigators who are able to compete effectively for independent research funding and improve infrastructure in the center’s research area. Researchers in UH’s Phase 1 $10.4-million grant generated almost $22 million in extramural funding.
• Phase 2 awards strengthen successful COBRE Phase 1 centers through continued development of investigators to compete effectively for independent research, pilot project funding and further improvements to research infrastructure at the institution. Improving the three research cores is a focus of UH’s $10.7-million Phase 2 grant.
• Phase 3 awards provide support for maintaining research cores developed during Phases 1 and 2 to sustain a collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment with pilot project programs, mentoring and training components.

UH will be applying for a Phase 3 award to sustain its world-class microbiome research and three research cores. According to Amend, the center is accelerating many kinds of projects that people care about.

He said, “We hope that by launching this center of excellence and by maintaining these three cores, it puts Hawaiʻi at the forefront of this research where we can make these discoveries to promote our own livelihoods, economic opportunities and sustainability going into the future.”

Read also on UH News and Kaua’i Now.

A team of researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are sampling West Maui reefs to assess the impact from the toxic ash from the devastating Lahaina wildfire. More than 2,200 structures were destroyed in the fire including gas stations, power lines and numerous boats in the Lahaina harbor. The adjacent coral reef ecosystems possibly impacted by the fire support subsistence, recreational and commercial fishing, particularly for the large Native Hawaiian population.

The UH team is working collaboratively with the community and county, state and federal experts to identify the pollutants and assess their abundance and ultimately determine if they will alter the ecosystem and affect its resilience in the future. The team was awarded a rapid response grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the immediate impacts from the contaminants created by the fire.

“We are measuring a number of water quality parameters, but importantly, we are connecting water quality to metrics of reef health to understand how the ecosystem may respond to potential wildfire stressors,” said Andrea Kealoha, a new faculty member with the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) Department of Oceanography who is leading the team. Kealoha lives on Maui and previously led the Water Quality Lab at UH Maui College.

She assembled a team of experts at SOEST, including Craig Nelson with the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education and the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant), Eileen Nalley with Hawaiʻi Sea Grant, and Nick Hawco with the Department of Oceanography.

The testing will identify the pollutants such as copper, lead and organic contaminants associated with burned materials, particularly wood and plastics.

The team is planning multiple sampling campaigns over the next year to document reef health and contaminant loads. While this grant focuses primarily on water quality and reef health, the team is also working to address specific community concerns about the potential accumulation of contaminants in reef fish.

The health of the coral reefs and nearshore ecosystems are intimately tied to the overall health of the community, and as islanders with deep cultural and economic ties to the marine environment, there is virtually no separation between human health, ecosystem health, and the health of the nearshore marine resources that people rely on for subsistence, recreation, and commercial fishing.

“We’re preparing for the first big rains this winter,” said Hawco, who was involved in a rapid response effort to the 2018 Thomas Fire in Southern California. “That’s when we expect much of the burned soils, ash, metals, and contaminants to reach the ocean and have the biggest impact on the reefs.”

The needs of the community and providing answers to critical questions around the future health of the environment and community are the top priority for researchers from the university and all of their collaborators on Maui, who are working together to serve the community.

“Collaborations are key with this effort,” said Kealoha. “There is no person, organization, or agency with all the expertise and resources to address these questions. We will continue to engage and communicate with partners in west Maui to ensure that knowledge from the community plays a role in guiding these research efforts.”

There are numerous partners and collaborators on this project, including the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the West Maui Watershed and Coastal Management program led by Tova Callendar, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health, the UH Maui College water quality lab, Hui o Ka Wai Ola, the Pacific Whale Foundation, and members of the Lahaina community.

Read more on Lahaina News, UH News, Maui Now, Kauai Now, Big Island Now, Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription required) and KHON2.

As the climate warms, there is major concern that Earth’s ocean will lose oxygen. A study published recently by oceanographers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa revealed that locked in ancient deep-sea sediments is evidence for oxygen loss in the world’s ocean during past glacial periods, indicating that widespread oxygen loss with current climate change may not be permanent.  

Scientists first measured oxygen in the oceans in the 1960s. Since then, they have observed decreasing levels in the mid-depths of the ocean—a phenomenon that can be explained in part by the fact that warmer waters hold less oxygen. Less oxygen in the water can lead to habitat loss for fish and other marine species that need oxygen to breathe. If the naturally-occurring low-oxygen regions in the Eastern Pacific expand in a warmer climate, Pacific Island fisheries could be significantly impacted. 

Cobalt holds the clues

“Ultimately, it would be helpful if we knew how low-oxygen regions of the ocean changed with past climate changes,” said Nick Hawco, lead author of the study and assistant professor of oceanography, in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). “However, the problem is that oxygen is a gas, so we don’t have any reservoirs of past oceans to test the oxygen content. Our new study builds off of prior work where we discovered that low oxygen water bodies in the Pacific are enriched in the metal cobalt.”

“One of the biggest sources of cobalt to the oceans is where oxygen deficient zones intersect with the continental shelf, leach cobalt from the shelf, and then transport it across the ocean in a plume of low oxygen water,” said Rhea Foreman, study co-author and oceanography researcher in SOEST. “The cobalt is subsequently incorporated into minerals that are deposited onto the seafloor and preserved in the sedimentary record.”

The researchers analyzed seafloor sediments from the past 145,000 years, a timeframe that includes the last major ice age. They found more cobalt in sediments from the past ice ages, compared to more recent sediments. 

“This means that there was a build up of cobalt in the Pacific during the last ice age,” said Hawco. “Because high cobalt is a proxy, or a stand-in, for low oxygen, this indicates there were probably larger regions of low oxygen waters in the Pacific during that time.”

Time to adapt

One suggested explanation for low-oxygen waters being more common in cold climates is the change in ocean circulation that accompanies climate change. Today, complex currents flowing from west to east help add oxygen to the mid-depth waters of the tropical Pacific. 

“If these currents weaken, the oxygen in the Pacific would decline,” said Hawco. “This is what we think happened during the last glacial period. But we don’t know how strongly—or how fast—these currents will respond to ocean warming.”

This could mean that fish and other species are able to adapt to changing oxygen as long as these changes are slow enough, as appears to have happened in the past. 

“We need to reduce emissions as soon as possible to buy time for these ecosystems to adapt to the climate change we are already locked into based on the last 150 years of carbon emissions,” added Hawco.

Read also on Big Island Now, Eurekalert, Phys.org, Science Daily, and UH News.

Intense tropical cyclones are one of the most devastating natural disasters in the world due to torrential rains, flooding, destructive winds, and coastal storm surges. New research co-authored by a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa atmospheric scientist revealed that since the 1980s, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes (maximum wind speed greater than 131 miles per hour) have been arriving three to four days earlier with each passing decade of climate change. Their findings were published recently in Nature. 

“When intense tropical cyclones occur earlier than usual, they cause unexpected problems for communities,” said Pao-Shin Chu, atmospheric sciences professor in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and Hawai‘i State Climatologist. “Moreover, the earlier advance of these storms will overlap with other weather systems, for example local thunderstorms or seasonal summer monsoon rainfall, and can produce compounding extreme events and strain the emergency response.”

Changes in many characteristics of intense hurricanes under a warming climate, for example, the number, intensity, and lifespan, are fairly well-studied. However, little is known about changes in the seasonal cycle of these intense events.

Using satellite data, historical tropical cyclone tracks, NOAA rainfall records, and various statistical methods, Chu and co-authors found that there has been a significant shift of these intense tropical cyclones from autumn to summer months since the 1980s in most tropical oceans. The effect was particularly observed in the eastern North Pacific off the coast of Mexico, where most hurricanes near Hawai‘i come from; the western North Pacific; the South Pacific; the Gulf of Mexico; and the Atlantic coast of Florida and the Caribbean.  

“It was surprising to consistently see earlier arrivals when we independently assessed satellite data and conventional ground-based observations of intense tropical cyclones,” said Chu.

In August 2017, for example, Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall on Texas and Louisiana and inflicted catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths.  

Using simulations from high-resolution global climate models, the team detected warmer oceanic conditions developed earlier, which favored the earlier onset of intense tropical cyclones. Further, they found that the ocean warming was primarily driven by greenhouse gas forcing. 

“In a future with high carbon dioxide emissions, the earlier shifting trend is projected to be amplified,” said Chu. 

In South China and the Gulf of Mexico, the earlier onset of intense tropical cyclones contributes significantly to an earlier onset of extreme rainfall. 

“Given the seasonal advance of intense tropical cyclones, as shown in this study, the potential for simultaneous occurrence with other high-impact weather events should be a serious concern for the society,” said Chu. “Understanding potential changes in hurricane activity in response to global warming is important for disaster prevention, resource management and community preparedness.”

Read also on KHON2, Environmental News Network, Science Daily, UH News, Eurekalert, Mirage News, Earth.com, KITV, and Maui Now.