Regional Ecosystems Research

We are working on understanding the chemical ecology of Rapid ʽŌhiʽa Death - ROD -, which is critical for protecting both healthy and ROD-infected ʽōhi‘a. A better understanding could lead to early ROD detection tools and the development of attractants and repellents to manipulate ambrosia beetle populations.

To document movement patterns and habitat use of Hawiian Hawks, GPS tags were attached to 17 individuals to track their movement across continuous, fragmented, and urban landscapes. We are now gathering multi-year tracking data to assess key aspects of habitat needs, and how these birds navigate through different ecosystems.

Acalolepta aesthetica , known as the Queensland Longhorn Beetle, is a wood-boring beetle that has recently emerged as a problematic invader on the Hawai‘i Island. We are determining its current range and identifying patterns of host tree use, focusing on culturally important and native trees.

The expansion of the bat fungal disease White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) to the Pacific Northwest is centered in western Washington. However, not much is known about bat distribution and activity in and around Washington’s National Parks.

Many factors including habitat destruction, invasive plants, non-native predators and competitors, and introduced diseases have decimated the diverse, endemic native forest bird community of Hawai‘i. In particular, avian malaria ( Plasmodium relictum ), which is transmitted by the introduced Southern House Mosquito ( Culex quinquefasciatus ), has caused dramatic declines and extinctions in many...

For millennia, Indigenous Pacific Islanders have stewarded natural resources to sustain their communities, traditional ways of life, and cultural identities. This close relationship with the natural world puts these communities at the forefront of climate change impacts. Drawing upon a strong history of adaptation and innovation, Indigenous communities are key collaborators on adaptation work...

We are testing different planting mixtures and densities to refine restoration efforts in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge.

ʻŌhiʻa ( Metrosideros polymorpha ) is the dominant tree in Hawaiian forests, but Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD), a newly emerging disease that stands to cause high mortality of this ecologically important tree, may lead to invasions by exotic plants as gaps open in the forest. To better understand if planting of ʻōhiʻa seedlings can be used as a restoration tool, we investigated the survival of ʻōhiʻa...

Wood-boring ambrosia beetles spread Rapid ʽŌhiʽa Death - ROD - by releasing fungal spores from infected trees while digging reproductive passages. Our primary goals are to identify the community of beetles that attack ōhiʽa infected with ROD, the extent to which beetles may directly or indirectly spread the disease, understand the timing of beetle attack, and estimate how long infected trees...

Hawai‘i’s isolation, paired with limited water resources, make the archipelago sensitive to reductions in water availability. Drought can take different forms, varying across Island geographies with respect to frequency, intensity, duration, and extent. A drought event can exert hydrological, agricultural, ecological, and socio-economic impacts – and these impacts have been growing over the past c

2018 was a record-breaking year for wildfires in Hawai‘i with over 30,000 acres burned statewide, including the habitat of the Oʻahu chewstick, a critically endangered flowering plant with less than 50 individuals remaining. The frequency and severity of wildfire in Hawai‘i has been increasing, and this trend is predicted to worsen with climate change. Wildfires are promoted by highly flammable in

Introduced mosquito-borne avian diseases, avian pox and avian malaria, are key limiting factors for endemic Hawaiian forest birds and are, in part, likely responsible for past extinctions and the continued decline of extant species populations. In the last 40 years on the island of Kaua‘i a number of species have become increasingly rare and several are now presumed extinct. Coinciding with these...