More than 120 University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and UH Hilo researchers have been recognized among the world’s top scientists in multiple fields, including environmental science, Earth science, ecology and evolution, and more, according to the 2023 best university rankings by Research.com.

Impressively, two SOEST faculty members, atmospheric scientist Bin Wang and oceanographer David Karl, were named in the top 25 researchers internationally. Based on a meticulous examination of 166,880 scientists on Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Graph, the rankings report on the impact of research published by scientists in 21 disciplines.

Wang and Karl were ranked among over 11,258 profiles in the Environmental Sciences discipline–placing them in the top 0.2% of researchers worldwide.

“These two world class scientists exemplify not only excellence in research and the search for truth, but also a thoughtful, caring, and nurturing attitude toward their students and colleagues,” said Chip Fletcher, interim dean of the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “Bin and Dave are known far and wide as outstanding teachers and mentors who express a genuine kindness, a holistic love for our Earthly home, and a deep concern for the future of humanity. We are indeed blessed to know them as friends and collaborators.”

Bin Wang

Wang, ranked 11 internationally and 5 in the nation, is an emeritus professor who has been with the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (formerly Department of Meteorology) at UH Mānoa  since 1987. He is a leading meteorologist specializing in climate and atmospheric dynamics. Among his research interests are variability and predictability of Asian-Australian monsoons, climate predictions, tropical cyclones and El Niño – Southern Oscillation dynamics. The ranking reported that Wang’s publications have more than 83,000 citations. Active in the science community, he has organized numerous international workshops and conferences and has been serving on scientific advisory committees in his field. Wang is among the most influential scientists in monsoon research worldwide and in development of meteorological sciences and climate predictions in Asian-Pacific region.

David Karl

Karl, ranked 22 in the world and 13 nationally, is the Victor and Peggy Brandstrom Pavel Professor of Microbial Oceanography and Director of the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE). As a microbial oceanographer, he has studied the distribution and metabolic activities of microorganisms at various sites in the global ocean from the equator to both poles and from the surface to the greatest ocean depths. In 1988, he co-founded the Hawaii Ocean Time-series program as a sentinel for observing the effects of climate on the structure and function of microbial communities. He has spent more than 1,000 days conducting research at sea including 23 expeditions to Antarctica. Karl’s research has centered around the ocean’s carbon cycle from photosynthetic production of organic matter to carbon sequestration in the deep sea. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Karl’s publications continue to advance the field of microbial ecology and collectively have more than 61,000 citations, according to the new ranking report.  

Additionally, numerous current faculty and emeritus professors ranked in the top 10% globally in the following disciplines:

Earth science
Fred T. Mackenzie
Fei-Fei Jin
Alexander N. Krot
Bruce F. Houghton
Michael O. Garcia
Christopher L. Sabine

Ecology and evolution
Brian W. Bowen
Craig R. Smith
Robert J. Toonen

Environmental Sciences
Tim Li
Antony D. Clark
Barry J. Huebert
Brian N. Popp
Yuqing Wang

UH Mānoa as a whole ranked in the nation’s top 30 in three subjects (Earth science No. 11, environmental sciences No. 21 and ecology and evolution No. 30).

The rankings by Research.com were compiled based on citations, publications and the Discipline H-index (D-index), which is a measure that reflects the number of influential documents authored by scientists and only includes publications and citation metrics for an examined discipline. Note: not all subjects are ranked every year.For a listing of additional UH faculty and discipline rankings, visit UH News.

The North Pacific ‘Garbage Patch’ is home to an abundance of floating sea creatures, as well as the plastic waste it has become infamous for, according to a study recently published in PLOS Biology and co-authored by oceanographers in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. 

Marine surface-dwelling organisms, such as jellies, snails, barnacles and crustaceans, are a critical ecological link between diverse ecosystems, the study authors wrote, but very little is known about where these organisms are found. Plastic pollution provides a clue: the oceanographic forces that concentrate buoyant man-made waste and pollutants in ‘garbage patches’, may also aggregate floating life. 

There are five main oceanic gyres — vortexes of water where multiple ocean currents meet — of which the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is the largest. It is also known as the North Pacific “Garbage Patch,” because converging ocean currents have concentrated large amounts of plastic waste there. 

The researchers leveraged an 80-day, long-distance swim by Benoît Lecomte through the gyre in 2019, dubbed The Vortex Swim. To investigate these floating lifeforms, the sailing crew accompanying the expedition collected samples of surface sea creatures and plastic waste. The expedition’s route was planned using computer simulations developed by SOEST oceanographers, Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner, which simulate ocean surface currents to predict areas with high concentrations of marine debris. 

“Surface currents are the most complex part of ocean dynamics,” said Maximenko, who is a senior researcher in the International Pacific Research Center at SOEST. “The model, which had been successfully used previously to simulate trans-Pacific drift of debris generated by the 2011 tsunami in Japan, now helps us to understand the role that ocean currents play in sustaining the pelagic ecosystem.”

The expedition team collected daily samples of floating life and waste in the eastern part of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and the researchers found that sea creatures were more abundant inside the gyre than on the periphery. The occurrence of plastic waste was positively correlated with the abundance of three groups of floating sea creatures: by-the-wind sailors (Velella sp), blue buttons (Porpita sp) and violet snails (Janthina sp).

The same ocean currents that concentrate plastic waste in oceanic gyres may be vital to the life cycles of floating marine organisms, by bringing them together to feed and mate, the authors say. However, human activities could negatively impact these high sea meeting grounds and the wildlife that depends on them.

“The ‘garbage patch’ is more than just a garbage patch,” said Rebecca Helm, assistant professor at the Earth Commons Institute at Georgetown University and lead author of the study. “It is an ecosystem, not because of the plastic, but in spite of it.”

Read also on UH News, West Hawai’i Today, and Kaua’i Now

Paul Wessel, emeritus professor with the SOEST Department of Earth Sciences; Seung-Sep Kim, SOEST alum and professor at Chungnam National University (Korea); and researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently published a study identifying 19,325 new seamounts. This work expanded a previously published catalog that had 24,643 seamounts.

The journal Science shared this discovery as a News feature. Excerpts of that article are below.

With only one-quarter of the sea floor mapped with sonar, it is impossible to know how many seamounts exist. But radar satellites that measure ocean height can also find them, by looking for subtle signs of seawater mounding above a hidden seamount, tugged by its gravity. A 2011 census using the method found more than 24,000. High-resolution radar data have now added more than 19,000 new ones. The vast majority—more than 27,000—remain uncharted by sonar. “It’s just mind boggling,” says David Sandwell, a marine geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who helped lead the work.

Published this month in Earth and Space Science, the new seamount catalog is “a great step forward,” says Larry Mayer, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping. Besides posing navigational hazards, the mountains harbor rare-earth minerals that make them commercial targets for deep-sea miners. Their size and distribution hold clues to plate tectonics and magmatism. They are crucial oases for marine life. And they are pot-stirrers that help control the large-scale ocean flows responsible for sequestering vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, says John Lowell, chief hydrographer of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which runs the U.S. military’s satellite mapping efforts. “The better we understand the shape of the sea floor, the better we can prepare [for climate change].”

Sandwell and his colleagues secured funding from the Navy and NGA to hunt for seamounts with satellites. They identified thousands, including 700 particularly shallow ones that posed hazards to submarines. But the team knew its first catalog was far from complete. Now, armed with data from high-resolution radar satellites, including the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 and SARAL from the Indian and French space agencies, the team can detect seamounts just 1100 meters tall—close to the lower limit of what defines a seamount, Sandwell says.

Seamounts often occur in chains formed as tectonic plates ride over stationary plumes of hot rock rising from the mantle. As a result, the catalog will pay immediate dividends for studies of Earth’s interior, says Carmen Gaina, a geophysicist at the Queensland University of Technology. It has already identified new seamounts in the northeast Atlantic Ocean that could help track the evolution of the mantle plume that feeds Iceland’s volcanoes. The survey also spotted seamounts near a ridge in the Indian Ocean where fresh crust is made as tectonic plates spread apart. They suggest a surprising amount of volcanism in a region once thought to be magma starved, Gaina says.

To biologists, seamounts’ steep slopes resemble crowded, boisterous skyscrapers for corals and other marine life. “They’re oases for biodiversity and biomass,” says Amy Baco-Taylor, a deep-sea biologist at Florida State University. Whales use them as waypoints. But biologists debate the role seamounts play in marine biodiversity: Are they home to genetically distinct species, like remote islands? Or do they serve as stepping stones for life to hopscotch through the oceans? By pushing up the density of seamounts, the new maps could strengthen the argument for the latter, Baco-Taylor says.

They will also boost efforts to protect biodiversity in international waters under a new marine protection treaty. “We can’t protect the things if we don’t know they’re there,” says Chris Yesson, a marine biologist at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology. The maps will provide a practical payoff, Yesson adds: “We won’t waste our time as much.” Some of his colleagues, he says, once traveled to the Indian Ocean to study a seamount that turned out to be a phantom created by an error in presonar depth records.

Nowhere will the new maps be as important as in understanding the ocean’s globe-girdling conveyor belt of currents. The currents ferry heat from the equator to the poles, where the water cools and gains density until it plunges downward, carrying heat and carbon dioxide into the abyss. But the flip side of this perpetual motion machine—deep ocean waters defying gravity and rising upward—has long been a mystery. The “upwelling” was once thought to happen evenly across the ocean, driven by turbulent waves at boundaries between deep ocean layers of different densities. Now, researchers believe it is concentrated at seamounts and ridges. “There’s a zoo of interesting things that happen when you have topography,” says Brian Arbic, a physical oceanographer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

When ocean currents curl around seamounts, they create turbulent “wake vortices” that can provide the energy to push cold water up, says Jonathan Gula, a physical oceanographer at the University of Western Brittany. In unpublished research, Gula and co-authors have found that these wake vortices make seamounts the leading contributor to upward ocean mixing, and a central player in climate. Since the team relied on the old Scripps catalog, not the new one, the effect of the seamounts is probably even larger, Gula adds.

The seamount catalog is sure to expand further with Seabed 2030, an international project to accelerate high-resolution sonar mapping that Mayer is helping lead. But space surveys will improve too. NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, launched in December 2022, can measure the height of a water surface to within a couple of centimeters. Better remote sensing would be welcome, given the cost of sonar mapping voyages, Mayer says. “I would love to see it threaten what I do.”

Source: Science

In recognition of excellence in teaching, research and mentorship, three faculty members were honored with SOEST awards at a ceremony on April 26, 2023.

“The highpoint of my week happened this morning,”  said Chip Fletcher, interim Dean of SOEST after the SOEST awards ceremony. “I was honored to recognize Drs. Rosie Alegado for teaching excellence, Jeff Drazen for research excellence, and Craig Nelson for mentoring excellence. These three embody everything it means to be in the SOEST ‘Ohana – to bring forward our best selves every day, to engender reciprocal trust and respect in our relationships with others, and to find personal fulfillment in contributing to the happiness of those we spend time with. Today we recognize Rosie, Jeff, and Craig. In truth, these three symbolize what so many here at SOEST achieve every single day.”

Rosie Alegado, Excellence in Teaching award recipient

The SOEST Excellence in Teaching award was presented to Rosie Alegado, associate professor of oceanography, for her demonstrated excellence in teaching, academic leadership, and dedication to student success.

The award was presented in recognition of her service to SOEST and these exemplary teaching qualities expressed by her colleagues: “a champion of teaching”; “always finding innovative and creative ways to improve the experience for her students”; “teaches both by example and by facilitation”; “an influential educator for students and other teaching faculty alike”; “develops long-standing relationships with students”; “a very empathetic and good listener”; “goes above and beyond and centers students in the place they are learning”; and “a wonderful collaborator”.

Additionally, Alegado received the University of Hawai‘i Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. The University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents selects for this award faculty members who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity, and personal values that benefit students.

Jeffrey Drazen, Excellence in Research award recipient

The SOEST Excellence in Research award was presented to Jeff Drazen, professor of oceanography, for his outstanding achievements, and in recognition of his research and scholarly contributions to the University of Hawai‘i.

The award was presented in recognition of Drazen’s service to SOEST and advancing the state of scientific understanding of ecology and dynamics in the deep sea environment. 

Additionally, Drazen was awarded the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research. The University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents awards this medal in recognition of scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.

Craig Nelson, Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research & Creative Work award recipient

The SOEST Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research and Creative Work award was presented to Craig Nelson, associate researcher jointly appointed to the Department of Oceanography and Hawai‘i Sea Grant, for his outstanding mentorship of undergraduate students at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

The award was presented in recognition of Nelson’s dedication to SOEST students and service to the larger UH Mānoa undergraduate research initiative as a productive member of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Council.

Additionally, Nelson was awarded the Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research & Creative Work by the UH Mānoa Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship. The OVPRS awards this medal in recognition of faculty mentors who have shown dedicated and sustained excellence in faculty mentoring of undergraduate students in their research and creative work endeavors.

A new paper authored by scientists from SOEST and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory provides insights on one of the most important factors in the Southern Oceanic carbon cycle, the “biological pump,” where carbon is utilized by organisms at the surface and transferred to ocean depths, away from contact with the atmosphere. It was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The Southern Ocean plays a central role in moderating the rate of climate change, absorbing an estimated 40% of the total amount of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions and 60-90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Understanding how the Southern Ocean absorbs carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of oceanography’s top priorities, but remote, harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean challenge scientists’ ability to accurately characterize how carbon cycling occurs.

The science team was led by Yibin Huang and Andrea Fassbender from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, in collaboration with Seth Bushinsky, an assistant professor from the SOEST Department of Oceanography. They examined data collected from more than 60 autonomous profiling floats over 10 years to quantify for the first time the role that tiny organisms called phytoplankton play in Southern Ocean CO₂ absorption from the atmosphere through their creation of different types of biogenic carbon. Each type of biogenic carbon has a different impact on carbon export and on the exchange of CO₂ between the atmosphere and ocean. 

Understanding how much carbon gets captured in the ocean interior by the biological pump and how this influences the amount of CO₂ taken up by the ocean is critically important because a change in the rate at which biogenic carbon is stored in ocean waters could result in more CO₂ remaining in the atmosphere and potentially affect the rate of climate change. 

Lead author Huang, a CIMAR scientist working at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, said that simultaneously monitoring the three different types of carbon produced by biological activity has posed a longstanding challenge for oceanographers. Due to the complexity of traditional methods, he said, scientists usually treat the total carbon production as a black box. 

“Our study applies a recently developed method for estimating the production and export of distinct biogenic carbon pools in a cost-effective way and at ocean basin scales to monitor how marine ecosystems function and their response to future climate change,” said Huang.

How phytoplankton pull carbon from the atmosphere

Through the unique Southern Ocean circulation south of 35°south latitude, the interaction of physical and biological processes shapes regional biogeochemistry that influences the global ocean interior. Prevailing upwelling south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current brings deep waters rich in dissolved inorganic carbon into contact with the atmosphere. The deep waters are also rich in nutrients, which fuel biological activity peaking during spring and summer. Phytoplankton consume dissolved inorganic carbon, with some species using it to make their  exoskeletons, and subsequently transport it to depth when they die. 

While plankton flourish in this rich, cold water, they can’t fully utilize available nutrients and the dissolved inorganic carbon brought to the surface during upwelling. Some of the dissolved inorganic carbon is outgassed to the atmosphere locally. The unused nutrients are subsequently transported toward the equator via large-scale circulation, fueling a large fraction of the biological production in the subtropics and tropics. The seasonal pattern of carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean is shaped by the slowdown in phytoplankton growth during the winter, when deep-water mixing is most vigorous. 

The new paper focuses on quantifying the amount of dissolved inorganic carbon used by these tiny organisms, and how the natural process of carbon export influences the modern air-sea exchange of CO₂. 

Tiny creatures, huge carbon sink 

The researchers found that organic carbon production captures roughly 3 billion tons of carbon per year, which is equivalent to about one quarter of total human emissions, while particulate inorganic carbon production diminishes CO₂ uptake by about 270 million tons per year. Differences in the amount of each type of carbon produced from north to south across the Southern Ocean influence how the biological pump impacts local air-sea CO₂ exchange.

Without the action of plankton consuming carbon during the southern hemisphere’s growing season, the Southern Ocean would be a CO₂ source to the atmosphere, the scientists said. 

The significant role played by phytoplankton in the modern Southern Ocean carbon sink suggests that understanding year-to-year variability in biogenic carbon production may be of central importance to understanding variability in the overall Southern Ocean carbon sink, said Fassbender, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of California Santa Cruz. 

“Expanding persistent year-round observations from biogeochemical profiling floats would serve as a cost-effective way to monitor the biological pump throughout the Southern Ocean and globally,” she said. 

The study was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation.

Read more at UH News.

Sixteen graduate programs at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have been nationally recognized for academic and research excellence, according to the 2023–24 U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools rankings, released on April 25.

Seven programs were ranked in the nation’s top 100, and five placed in the top 75. The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) ranked No. 42 for its earth sciences doctoral programs, the Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing placed No. 49 for its doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program and No. 60 for best master’s nursing programs, the College of Education ranked No. 64 and the College of Social Sciences placed No. 72 in public affairs for its Public Administration Program.

The Department of Earth Sciences in SOEST placed No. 42 out of 166 earth sciences doctoral programs considered. Students in the PhD program gain advanced knowledge, develop professional skills and learn cutting-edge methodologies through specialized coursework and by conducting research.

“At a time when many prospective graduate students are deciding which institution they will attend in the fall, these rankings demonstrate that UH Mānoa is home to world-class academic programs across a vast range of disciplines,” UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno said. “The consistent national recognition of Mānoa’s excellence over the years is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, faculty and staff.”

The rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinion about program excellence, and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students.

Note: not all programs are ranked every year. See these UH News stories on previous years’ rankings: 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Visit UH News for additional program rankings:
Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing  |  College of Education  |  College of Social Sciences  |  Shidler College of Business  |  College of Engineering  |  Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health  |  College of Natural Sciences

For a full list of rankings, visit the Mānoa Institutional Research Office website.

The University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai‘i Sea Grant) and its partners were awarded over $5.1 million to address rampant marine debris issues in Hawai‘i and develop urgently needed, innovative solutions which can be shared worldwide.

The funding will primarily focus on derelict fishing gear­—abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear—which devastates threatened and endangered species such as Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles, and humpback whales; harms commercial and recreational fisheries; poses a hazard to shipping and boating; pollutes the shoreline and nearshore waters; and is a health hazard to humans and other animals.

This large investment from the National Sea Grant College Program (NOAA Sea Grant) will connect visionary experts from across the state and region in three multi-year projects to increase the efficiency of derelict fishing gear removal, repurpose the gear that is brought to shore, and engage a network of community members and resource managers throughout the Pacific to develop a regional Pacific Islands Marine Debris Action Plan.

Dr. Darren T. Lerner, Hawai‘i Sea Grant director and principal investigator of two of the grants, noted “It is an honor to be partnering on these projects with researchers, cultural practitioners, industry members, and other experts from across the state and region to tackle a problem that has had profound negative impacts on the environment, the economy, and the health of our communities. While Hawai‘i and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument [Monument] are known worldwide as hotspots for ocean plastic pollution and environmental damage, the cutting-edge technologies that will be developed through these large research grants will have far-reaching impacts on all states and nations impacted by ocean plastic pollution.”

The three projects are:

“Development of New Cutting and Lifting Technologies to Increase Efficiency of Derelict Fishing Gear Removal” ($1,830,345). The focus of this project is to improve the detection of the nets; develop innovative tools to cut the net masses which have been known to weigh up to 11 tons each and are currently cut and brought onto boats by hand; and develop new technologies and techniques for lifting the nets out of the water. Since in-water marine debris removal was initiated in 1996, a staggering 2.4 million pounds of debris has been removed from within the boundaries of the Monument alone, and the applicant organization, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (PMDP), now spearheads marine debris removal efforts in this area. The project aims to remove the annual debris accumulation as well as address the backlog which is now impacting coral reefs and thousands of marine and terrestrial species. The principal investigator is Dr. Darren T. Lerner and the co-principal investigators are Kevin O’Brien and James Morioka from the PMDP, and Drs. Mary J. Donohue and Darren Okimoto from Hawai‘i Sea Grant.

Kevin O’Brien, Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project’s founder and president, states “Papahānaumokuākea has one of the heaviest marine debris accumulation rates in the world, so our region is the perfect testbed to develop new tools and processes to push the boundaries of existing marine debris removal approaches.” O’Brien adds “successful breakthrough solutions for net cutting and lifting would change the current landscape of marine debris removal operations and could be utilized worldwide by organizations struggling to remove large nets from difficult locations.”

“Nets to Roads: Innovative research to scale-up removal and repurposing of derelict fishing gear” ($2,990,627). This project will focus on all aspects of the issue, from detecting the debris at sea and forecasting its arrival in Hawai‘i’s nearshore waters; to rapid removal and transport to a centralized storage facility from anywhere around the state; to sorting and repurposing the debris into plastic pellets that are compatible for use in asphalt roads in partnership with the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation. Ultimately, the goal is to recycle 40 tons of ocean plastic each year for use in asphalt roads in Hawai‘i. A large emphasis of the project will be on research and education at each step of the process. The principal investigator is Dr. Darren T. Lerner and the co-principal investigators are Drs. Jennifer Lynch and David Horgen from Hawai‘i Pacific University, and Drs. Mary J. Donohue and Darren Okimoto from Hawai‘i Sea Grant.

Dr. Lynch, co-director of Hawai‘i Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research and biologist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stated, “Like two links in a chain, this project will propel the multiple steps of removal to repurposing plastic marine debris. As a major win-win for the environment and the residents of Hawai‘i, the funding will formally bring together some of the most impactful marine debris researchers and removal non-profit organizations that have for decades interacted within the Hawai‘i Marine Debris Action Plan, while also linking their efforts towards an innovative long-term repurposing idea that can make Hawaii’s public road infrastructure more sustainable.”

“Pacific Islands Marine Debris Community Action Coalition” ($299,987). Fishing communities in Hawai‘i and the U.S-affiliated Pacific Islands have unparalleled physical and cultural connections to the ocean but are some of the most impacted globally in the context of marine debris. Efforts to mitigate this problem have been limited historically, so this project will connect communities who have not been traditionally engaged to address marine debris with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions to develop a regional Pacific Islands Marine Debris Action Plan. The principal investigator is Dr. Eileen Nalley and the co-principal investigators are Drs. Darren T. Lerner, Elizabeth A. Lenz, and Mary J. Donohue from Hawai‘i Sea Grant.

Dr. Nalley, Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s ocean and coastal ecosystem health specialist, noted “We’re really excited to work with partners in American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawai‘i, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to scale up an approach that has been successful locally through the development of a regional Marine Debris Community Action Coalition. This project will improve knowledge sharing, facilitate collaboration, and increase capacity throughout the region for addressing problems related to marine debris.”

Dr. Mary J. Donohue, Hawai‘i Sea Grant program development and national partnership specialist, said “Critically, the intersection of these three projects and integration of efforts across them will drive innovation at a scale not before possible in Hawai‘i or anywhere in the world. Hawai‘i Sea Grant is partnering with the most imaginative and talented researchers, practitioners, communities, and other partners to both remove and repurpose this very harmful type of ocean plastic pollution. The projects in and of themselves are brilliant, but together they constitute a unique opportunity to significantly advance our ability to mitigate derelict fishing gear.”

Read also on UH News.

Like others across the world, indigenous Fijians (known as iTaukei) in Fiji are facing increased pressure to honor their loved ones with a memorable funeral that can become costly. A team of interdisciplinary researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have authored a first-of-its-kind study to systematically collect data and analyze the financing and expenditures of iTaukei funerals in Fiji. It is also believed to be the first study on this topic in the Pacific region.

The study was published in April 2023 in World Development Sustainability. It was authored by Ron Vave, a marine biology PhD graduate; Kimberly Burnett, UH Economic Research Organization associate director; and Alan Friedlander, chief scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project and an affiliate researcher at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology.

iTaukei funerals often consist of pre-burial, burial day and post-burial rituals, including large feasts, formal oratory speeches and ceremonies often hosting hundreds of people. Expenses for these large gatherings include kava, food and morgue payments, as well as travel costs.

Data from 239 iTaukei funerals (128 urban and 111 rural) between 2000 and 2020 revealed average cash contributions by the “decedent’s family” and from “condolences” as US$3,104 and US$2,183, respectively. The total cash spent on funerals averaged US$4,979, which is equivalent to five months of Fiji’s annual average household income. Forty-five families (19% of funerals) contributed more than US$4,800 (FJ$10,000) in cash towards funeral costs, with 28 families (12%) securing loans ranging from US$240 to US$7,200.

Recent Fiji Bureau of Statistics (2021) data reported 29.9% of Fijian residents were living in poverty, of which 36% were iTaukei. To balance a respectable funeral against household survival, families reduced costs by modifying select rituals, prepared ahead by saving, or participated in communal functions.

This research shows that although funerals may not yet be considered a social economic burden, early research can identify and address issues, thereby enhancing community resilience. Despite difficult economic times, there has been an increasing emphasis on funerals, resulting in poorer iTaukei.

The authors note that while the research focused only on cash as it was easier to quantify, this was also a limitation as Pacific peoples (including iTaukei) have equally or higher in-kind contributions such as root crops; protein such as beef, pork or fish; traditional artifacts such as mats, tapa, kava, sperm whales teeth known as tabua; as well as the social capital of looking out for each other and returning favors (reciprocity).

UH Mānoa course options vital to research

Part of the reason research on funerals is scarce is due to its extremely sensitive nature, the authors noted. Several UH Mānoa courses in the fields of sociology, anthropology, natural resources and environmental management, interdisciplinary studies, and an oceanography statistics course using R (programming language for statistical computing and graphics) helped Vave as he was designing and preparing for this research.

He credits the ability to earn an interdisciplinary PhD in marine biology to the willingness and flexibility of the Marine Biology Graduate Program—to research funerals as a focus. Equally important was the interdisciplinary work of Vave’s dissertation committee, he said. In particular, committee chair Friedlander’s flexibility and trust for Vave’s work to be guided by needs identified by Fiji’s Ministry of iTaukei and communities which was crucial to the success of this work.

This research was part of the National Science Foundation’s Coastal Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability project award #1325874 on “Understanding the links between local ecological knowledge, ecosystem services and community resilience.” This project enhanced local capacity in decision making to manage coastal areas for sustainability, and contributed to policy development in resilience and adaptation to climate change. The work was integrated with interdisciplinary and international educational and training activities for undergraduate and graduate students, especially members of groups underrepresented in the sciences.

Read more on UH News.

To help in the future monitoring efforts of an endangered population of resident false killer whales in Hawaiian waters, where only 167 individuals are estimated to remain, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Health and Stranding Lab examined blubber samples of a false killer whale that died as bycatch in a fishery interaction, and published the findings in Frontiers.

Blubber is a multifunctional and complex tissue essential to the survival of dolphins and whales, and an indicator of individual condition. Blubber samples of this whale are now informing the health of the living population.

“Preservation of our oceans and especially the marine mammals who inhabit it is of critical importance to the people of Hawaiʻi,” said Jana Phipps, a PhD student in nutrition in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources who works at the UH Health and Stranding Lab. “By expanding knowledge of how to best assess the impacts of potential threats to endangered false killer whales, we can better manage local populations.”

Marine mammals are culturally significant to the people of Hawaiʻi and are recognized sentinels of ocean health.

An understanding of how to best assess threats such as declining prey resources faced by endangered false killer whales are critical for effective conservation and management.

Blubber to assess overall body condition

Whales and dolphins have a thick layer of blubber under the skin, and changes in this layer are an indicator of the overall body condition and health of the animal. Blubber consists of fat cells and connective tissue and the size of the fat cells and relative amount of connective tissue varies depending on the amount of fat stored in the body.

The endangered population of false killer whales may be faced with declining prey resources, and this research provides valuable baseline data on blubber properties according to blubber depth and body location. This is important for assessing the nutritional status of free-swimming live false killer whales.

“A greater understanding of how blubber cell size and connective tissue ratio vary in false killer whales is needed,” said Kristi West, director of the UH Health and Stranding lab at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology. “This research will strengthen the interpretation of blubber biopsy data from live whales in order to better assess individual and population health.”

Measurements included the thickness of the blubber layer across body girths and planes and the accompanying size of fat cells and relative amount of connective tissue at each sampling location. Researchers used statistical analysis to describe differences in the blubber across the body and according to blubber layer depth. They compared these findings to blubber properties in the body region where small blubber biopsies are routinely collected by researchers from free-swimming whales.

Funding for this research was from NOAA Section 6 Endangered Species Recovery Grants, the NOAA John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Assistance Grant Program and Office of Naval Research Defense University Research Instrumentation Program.

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