Legacy Research

While the Hawaiian avian disease system has been well-studied in the forests of the older section of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO), and in many other locations throughout the state, nothing was known about avian disease in the new Kahuku Unit of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and the adjacent Kau Forest Reserve. The high elevation forests of Kahuku are the only habitat located on...

The USGS publishes fact sheets on selected topics. Fact sheets related to research conducted at the Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center and partner science centers are included on the publications tab.

Arthur Medeiros is a researcher emeritus for PIERC, retiring in 2015 after over 20 years of federal service. Dr. Medeiros worked as a research botanist on Maui Island and was instrumental in the restoration of a Hawaiian dry forest in the Auwahi district of Haleakalā volcano. His efforts led to the recovery of multiple rare dry forest tree species and a 75% increase in native shrub cover.

The federally endangered nēnē, or Hawaiian Goose, once present on most of the Hawaiian Islands, was found only on Hawai‘i Island by 1900. This remnant population was reduced to as few as 30 individuals by 1952 due to the combination of unregulated hunting, introduced mammalian predators, and large-scale habitat degradation. Nēnē have been restored to a few places like Hawai‘i Volcanoes National...

The palila is an endangered species of Hawaiian honeycreeper which exists only in subalpine forests dominated by māmane and naio on Mauna Kea Volcano. The diet of this finch-billed bird is unusually restricted; immature seeds, flowers, and insects found on māmane trees are critical to its existence. Māmane also is the preferred nesting substrate of the palila. Federal court orders have resulted in...

‘I‘iwi populations have severely declined in recent decades in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) and elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands due to the cumulative impacts of many invasive threats that have degraded habitats, disrupted food webs, competed for resources, depredated nests and birds, and transmitted diseases.

A massive outbreak of the native koa looper moth (Scotorythra paludicola; Geometridae) defoliated more than a third of the koa (Acacia koa) forest on Hawai‘i Island during 2013–2014. Our objective was to record the dynamics of the koa looper (Scotorythra paludicola) outbreak and evaluate the response to the outbreak by the forest ecosystem generally as well as select native and invasive species...