Publications

Many agencies and interest groups are committed to re-establishing components of Guam's native avifauna through the reintroduction of captive-reared birds or translocation from other islands in the Marianas if the Brown Treesnake (Boiga irregularis; BTS) can be eliminated. Island-wide eradication of BTS from Guam continues to appear out of reach, but with recent and future advancement in...

The accidental introduction of the Brown Treesnake (BTS, Boiga irregularis) to Guam following World War II led to the extinction, extirpation, or severe decline of most of Guam’s native avifauna. One forest bird species that managed to persist is the cavity-nesting Såli (Micronesian Starling, Aplonis opaca guami), a once-ubiquitous native omnivore whose current Guam distribution is...

Endemic Hawaiian forest birds have experienced dramatic population declines. The Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex (Refuge Complex) was established for the conservation of endangered forest birds and their habitats. Surveys have been conducted at two units of the Refuge Complex to monitor forest bird populations and their response to management actions. We analyzed survey data...

The invasive rust Austropuccina psidii was detected in the Hawaiian Islands in 2005 and has become widely established throughout the archipelago in both native and introduced species of Myrtaceae. Initial predictions about the impacts of the fungus on native ʽōhiʽa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), a keystone native tree, have not materialized, but there is ongoing concern that...

Burmese python (Python bivittatus) is an invasive snake that has significantly affected ecosystems in southern Florida, United States. Aside from direct predation and competition, invasive species can also introduce nonnative pathogens that can adversely affect native species. The subfamily Serpentovirinae (order Nidovirales) is composed of positive-sense RNA viruses primarily found in...

The design of successful invasive species control programs is often hindered by the absence of basic demographic data on the targeted population. Establishment of invasive Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, Florida USA has led to local precipitous declines (> 90%) of mesomammal populations and is also a major threat to native populations of...

A key component for biologists managing mobile species is understanding where and when a species occurs at different locations and scaling management to fit the spatial and temporal patterns of movement. We established an automated radio-telemetry tracking network to document multi-year movement in 2016–2018 of 3 endangered waterbirds among wetlands on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, USA: ʻalae ʻula or...

Effective species management and conservation require knowledge of species distribution and status. We used point-transect distance sampling surveys of the endangered palila (Loxioides bailleui), a honeycreeper currently found only on the Island of Hawai'i, USA, to generate robust estimates of total abundance and simultaneously model the distribution, abundance, and spatial correlation...

The Hawaiian Islands have been identified as a global biodiversity hotspot. We examine the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using Climate Data Records products (0.05 × 0.05°) to identify significant differences in NDVI between neutral El Niño-Southern Oscillation years (1984, 2019) and significant long-term changes over the entire time series (1982–2019) for the Hawaiian...

Of the estimated 55 Hawaiian honeycreepers (subfamily Carduelinae) only 17 species remain, nine of which the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers endangered. Among the most pressing threats to honeycreeper survival is avian malaria, caused by the introduced blood parasite Plasmodium relictum, which is increasing in distribution in Hawaiʻi as a result of climate change...

Metrosideros polymorpha (‘ōhi‘a) trees in Hawaiʻi are dying from two distinct diseases, collectively referred to as rapid ‘ōhi‘a death (ROD), caused by Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia. Boring dust (frass) released when ambrosia beetles attack and colonize infected trees has been suspected as a transmission source. We sampled ambrosia beetle frass from six locations on...

Drought is a prominent feature of Hawaiʻi’s climate. However, it has been over 30 years since the last comprehensive meteorological drought analysis, and recent drying trends have emphasized the need to better understand drought dynamics and multi-sector effects in Hawaiʻi. Here, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of past drought effects in Hawaiʻi that we integrate with geospatial...