Fall 2025 WRRC Seminar

October 27, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Kuykendall Hall Room 201

Island communities face intertwined water challenges, from cesspools and urban runoff to wildfire debris and wastewater reuse, that deliver complex mixtures of contaminants to groundwater, streams, reefs, and seafood. In this seminar, faculty candidate Dr. Nicole Dennis presents an integrated aquatic toxicology program tailored to Hawai‘i. Focus Area 1 maps contaminant occurrence, dynamics, and bioaccumulation patterns across ridge-to-reef systems using active/passive sampling, sentinel species, and predictive fate models. Focus Area 2 uncovers what contaminants do once in the system, pairing chronic, sub-lethal bioassays (native fish, coral larvae, microbial communities) with mechanistic tools and advanced mixture modeling to predict interactive effects. Focus Area 3 turns science into impact, co-developing adaptive monitoring and decision-support frameworks with communities to guide wastewater reuse, post-disaster response, and reef protection. Together, these focus areas build a pipeline from foundational chemistry to biological effect to applied solutions, advancing policy-relevant science, training interdisciplinary scholars, and strengthening resilience for Hawai‘i’s ecosystems and communities.


Event Sponsor
Water Resources Research Center, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Diana Hirabayashi, 808-956-3096, dianahi@hawaii.edu,

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