The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration it has selected the University of �鶹��ý to host NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (CIMAR). The selection comes with an award of up to $210 million throughout the course of five years, with the potential for renewal for another five years based on successful performance.

The mission of CIMAR is to conduct research and disseminate knowledge necessary for understanding and predicting environmental change in the Indo-Pacific region, conserving and managing coastal and marine resources in the Hawaiian islands and U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands, and for meeting the nation’s economic, social and environmental needs in this region.

“This new award, reaffirming a 44-year collaboration between NOAA and UH, is a testament to the excellence of the accomplishments by federal and �鶹��ýresearchers,” said Doug Luther, director of the (JIMAR) in the UH Mānoa , NOAA’s previous cooperative institute hosted by UH. “It provides the resources for CIMAR to advance in the tropical Pacific NOAA’s concept of healthy oceans, ecosystems, communities and economies that are resilient in the face of environmental change.”

After an open, competitive evaluation, NOAA selected UH as the home for the new CIMAR. The funding more than doubles the available money that JIMAR received from NOAA.

“We are pleased to announce that the University of �鶹��ý will host our new Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research,” said Craig McLean, assistant NOAA administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “This institute will help NOAA achieve our mission to better understand the ocean and atmosphere, which depends on research, data and information to make sound decisions for healthy ecosystems, communities and a strong blue economy.”

The new cooperative institute will continue to address some of the major research themes that have been the focus of JIMAR, as well as expand to include new research areas. The eight research themes include: ecological forecasting; ecosystem monitoring; ecosystem-based management; protection and restoration of resources; oceanographic monitoring and forecasting; climate science and impacts; air-sea interactions; and tsunamis and other long-period ocean waves.

“It’s a strong connection we have to feed that pipeline locally. It provides experiential, hands-on, all of those great things—experiences for students,” said Tia Brown, deputy director of NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. “Postdoctoral, undergraduate or graduate students work directly with NOAA scientists, which is an invaluable piece of how we work in the community and how we grow the science-based community here.”

“Pacific island communities face daunting challenges and unique opportunities in achieving a sustainable and prosperous future as the environment and regional economies continue to change,” said Luther. “NOAA‘s support is critical for attaining this future.”

NOAA supports 20 cooperative institutes consisting of 70 universities and research institutions in 28 states and the District of Columbia. These research institutions provide strong educational programs that promote student and postdoctoral scientist involvement in NOAA-funded research.

–By Marcie Grabowski

To survive the open ocean, tiny fish larvae must find food, avoid predators and navigate ocean currents to their adult habitats. But what the larvae of most marine species experience during these great ocean odysseys has long been a mystery, until now.

A team of scientists from NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, the , Arizona State University and elsewhere have discovered that a diverse array of marine animals find refuge in so-called “surface slicks” in �鶹��ý. These ocean features create a superhighway of nursery habitats for more than 100 species of commercially and ecologically important fishes, such as mahi-mahi, jacks and billfish. The findings were published in .

Surface slicks are meandering lines of smooth surface water formed by the convergence of ocean currents, tides, and variations in the seafloor and have long been recognized as an important part of the seascape. The traditional Hawaiian mele (song) Kona Kai ʻŌpua describes slicks as Ke kai maʻokiʻoki, or “the streaked sea” in the peaceful seas of Kona. Despite this historical knowledge, and scientists’ belief that slicks are important for fish, the tiny marine life that slicks contain has remained elusive.

To unravel the slicks’ secrets, the research team conducted more than 130 plankton net tows to search for larvae and other plankton inside the surface slicks and surrounding waters along the leeward coast of �鶹��ý Island, while studying ocean properties. They then combined those in-water surveys with a new technique to remotely sense slick footprints using satellites.

A diverse marine nursery

Though the slicks covered only about 8% of the ocean surface in the 380-square-mile-study area, they contained an astounding 39% of the study area’s surface-dwelling larval fish; more than 25% of its zooplankton, which the larval fish eat; and 75% of its floating organic debris such as feathers and leaves. Larval fish densities in surface slicks off West �鶹��ý were, on average, more than seven times higher than densities in the surrounding waters.

The study showed that surface slicks function as a nursery habitat for marine larvae of at least 112 species of commercially and ecologically important fishes, as well as many other animals. These include coral reef fishes, such as jacks, triggerfish and goatfish; pelagic predators, for example mahi-mahi; deep-water fishes, such as lanternfish; and various invertebrates, such as snails, crabs and shrimp.

“We were shocked to find larvae of so many species, and even entire families of fishes, that were only found in surface slicks,” said lead author Jonathan Whitney, marine ecologist at NOAA and former postdoctoral fellow at the in UH ��ā�ԴDz�’s (SOEST). “This suggests they are dependent on these essential habitats.”

This research is an example of UH ��ā�ԴDz�’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

An interconnected superhighway

“These ‘bioslicks’ form an interconnected superhighway of rich nursery habitat that accumulate and attract tons of young fishes, along with dense concentrations of food and shelter,” said Whitney. “The fact that surface slicks host such a large proportion of larvae, along with the resources they need to survive, tells us they are critical for the replenishment of adult fish populations.”

In addition to providing crucial nursing habitat for various species and helping maintain healthy and resilient coral reefs, slicks create foraging hotspots for larval fish predators and form a bridge between coral reef and pelagic ecosystems.

Explore this research through an .

For more see .

The first report on Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in more than 10 years provides an update of its resources and some surprising discoveries. PMNM is one of the largest fully protected marine conservation areas in the world, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for both it’s natural and cultural importance.

The is involved in PMNM research through various colleges and institutions such as , , and (JIMAR). Brian Hauk, a resource protection manager at JIMAR for PMNM, which is under the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service, was a part of the research team that conducted the PMNM 2020 .

The report includes a newly discovered mesophotic (a kind of coral ecosystem found in tropical and subtropical regions at depths ranging from almost 100 feet to over 490 feet below the ocean’s surface) species, records of algae and fish found on deep dive surveys, non-indigenous marine species and an invasive species of cryptogenic algae, Chondria tumulosa, which is smothering Manawai reefs and everything in its path.

“We found deep reefs at Kure atoll that had 100% endemic fish populations on our surveys, and we have been working with our partners to describe several species that are new to science all together,” said Hauk.

PMNM‘s original management plan was released in 2008, and there has not been a substantial update, until now. This new report uses the most recent scientific research to assess PMNM‘s resources and update their status and trends. A lot of the data behind this research was done by UH Mānoa, its affiliates and partner agencies.

The information contained in the report is critical in understanding how �鶹��ý can better steward protected areas like PMNM.

“It is through that knowledge that we can expand our understanding of pristine natural places and implement practices in our own backyard to enable ecosystems to return to a more natural state,” said Hauk. “Through these actions, people in �鶹��ý, the university and the world can better strive towards maintaining sustainable resources and ecosystems for future generations.”

The ocean stores huge amounts of heat and carbon in a vast reservoir that covers 70 percent of Earth’s surface. Measuring changes in that heat content over time has been a subject of intense scientific research, with analyses growing more precise as observing systems expand and the duration of measurements grow.

In an article published in , John Lyman, a scientist at the University of �鶹��ý at ��ā�ԴDz�’s and Gregory Johnson, a NOAA scientist at the , analyzed four prominent ocean temperature datasets and found that throughout the past 52 years, the area of ocean regions showing long-term warming trends dwarfs that of regions showing cooling trends.

For 15 years, Johnson and Lyman have led an analysis of ocean temperatures for the annual “State of the Climate” report published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

“Ocean warming is tightly linked to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations, so global ocean temperature trends are an important yardstick for measuring climate change,” said Johnson. “We noticed that as the time-series of upper ocean heat content we were analyzing grew over the years, more of the ocean area was covered by a statistically significant warming trend.”

Warming trends grow steadily

Johnson and Lyman decided to step back and look at how temperature trends changed when estimated throughout varying time periods. To investigate those questions, the pair generated annual maps of ocean heat content anomalies in the upper 700 meters of ocean from 1993 to 2019 by combining sea-level data from satellite altimeters with ocean temperature data. They also analyzed annual maps of ocean temperature data from the upper 700 meters from 1968 to 2019 from three other research groups: NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics.

For the 27-year period from 1993 to 2019, they found 53 percent of the global ocean exhibited statistically significant warming trends versus 3 percent of the ocean showing significant cooling trends. For the 52-year period from 1968 to 2019, the imbalance grew markedly: 72 percent to 79 percent of the ocean area showed warming, while only 1 percent to 3 percent exhibited cooling. When trends were estimated over shorter 5-year periods, the areas and imbalances were much smaller, with 24 percent warming and 17 percent cooling.

“As we increase the time period over which we estimate ocean heat content trends, the portion of the global ocean where we can detect warming trends steadily grows, while the cooling trends steadily shrinks,” said Lyman.

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—By Marcie Grabowski

New research shows that many larval fish species from different ocean habitats are ingesting plastics in their preferred nursery habitat. The study was conducted by an international team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the .

Many of the world’s marine fish spend their first days to weeks feeding and developing at the ocean surface. Larval fish are the next generation of adult fish that will supply protein and essential nutrients to people around the world. However, little is known about the ocean processes that affect the survival of larval fish.

While recent evidence shows that adult fish ingest plastic, this is the first study to show that larval coral reef fish and pelagic species are also consuming plastic, as early as days after they are spawned.

“Larval fish are foundational for ecosystem function and represent the future of adult fish populations,” said Jamison Gove, a research oceanographer for NOAA and co-lead of the study. “The fact that larval fish are surrounded by and ingesting non-nutritious toxin-laden plastics, at their most vulnerable life-history stage, is cause for alarm.”

The study, , was one of the most ambitious studies to date to learn where larval fish spend their time and what they eat while there. The researchers combined field-based plankton tow surveys and advanced remote sensing techniques to identify larval fish nursery habitats in the coastal waters of �鶹��ý.

Surface slicks concentrate larval fish and plastics

The team found that contained far more larval fish than neighboring surface waters. Surface slicks are naturally occurring, ribbon-like, smooth water features at the ocean surface. They are formed when internal ocean waves converge near coastlines and are observed in coastal marine ecosystems worldwide. The surface slicks also aggregate plankton, which is an important food resource for larval fish.

“We found that surface slicks contained larval fish from a wide range of ocean habitats, from shallow-water coral reefs to the open ocean and down into the deep sea—at no other point during their lives do these fish share an ocean habitat in this way,” said Jonathan Whitney, a marine ecologist for the UH Mānoa and NOAA, and co-lead of the study. “Slick nurseries also concentrate lots of planktonic prey, and thereby provide an oasis of food that is critical for larval fish development and survival.”

Larval fish in the surface slicks were larger, well-developed, and had increased swimming abilities. Larval fish that actively swim will better respond and orient to their environment. This suggests that tropical larval fish are actively seeking surface slicks to capitalize on concentrated prey.

Unfortunately, the team also discovered that the same ocean processes that aggregated prey for larval fish also concentrated buoyant, passively floating plastics. “We were shocked to find that so many of our samples were dominated by plastics,” said Whitney.

Larval fish consume plastics days after spawning

Plastic densities in these surface slicks were, on average, eight times higher than the plastic densities recently found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. After towing the net 100 times, they found that plastics were 126 times more concentrated in surface slicks than in surface water just a couple hundred yards away. There were seven times more plastics than there were larval fish.

The majority of the plastics found in surface slicks were very small (less than 1 mm). Larval fish prefer their prey this size. After dissecting hundreds of larval fish, the researchers discovered that many fish species had ingested plastic particles.

“We found tiny plastic pieces in the stomachs of commercially targeted pelagic species, including swordfish and mahi-mahi, as well as in coral reef species like triggerfish,” said Whitney.

Plastics were also found in flying fish, which apex predators such as tunas and most Hawaiian seabirds eat.

A threat to fisheries

Researchers are unclear just how harmful plastic ingestion is to larval fish. In adult fish, plastics can cause gut blockage, malnutrition, and toxicant accumulation. Larval fish are highly sensitive to changes in their environment and food. Prey-size plastics could impact development and even reduce survivorship of larval fish that ingest them.

“Biodiversity and fisheries production are currently threatened by a variety of human-induced stressors such as climate change, habitat loss, and overfishing. Our research suggests we can likely now add plastic ingestion by larval fish to that list of threats,” said Gove.

—By Marcie Grabowski

New research reveals growth rates of deep-sea coral communities for the first time, and the pattern of colonization by various species. The study was a collaboration between researchers at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa (SOEST), and the .

The scientific team used the UH Mānoa submersible and remotely-operated vehicles to examine coral communities on submarine lava flows of various ages on the leeward flank of �鶹��ý Island. Utilizing the fact that the age of the lava flows—between 61 and 15,000 years—is the oldest possible age of the coral community growing there, they observed the deep-water coral community in �鶹��ý appears to undergo a pattern of ecological succession over time scales of centuries to millennia.

reported Coralliidae or pink coral, were the pioneering taxa, the first to colonize after lava flows were deposited. With enough time, the deep-water coral community showed a shift toward supporting a more diverse array of tall, slower growing taxa: Isididae, bamboo coral, and Antipatharia, black coral. The last to colonize was Kulamanamana haumeaae, gold coral, which grows over mature bamboo corals, and is the slowest growing taxa within the community.

“This study was the first to estimate the rate of growth of a deep-sea corals on a community scale,” said Meagan Putts, lead author of the study and research associate at SOEST’s . “This could help inform the management of the precious coral fishery in �鶹��ý. Furthermore, �鶹��ý is probably the only place in the world where such a study could have been performed due to its continuous and well known volcanology.”

“Prior to beginning this work, it was unclear if a pattern of colonization existed for deep-sea coral communities and in what time frame colonization would occur,” said Putts. “When put into context with what we do know about the life history of Hawaiian deep-water corals, the results of this work make sense.”

This study has important conservation and sustainability implications regarding these ecosystems that had never before been ecologically quantified. This research also provides insights about recovery of deep sea ecosystems that may be disturbed by activities such as fishing and mining.

“Further,” said Putts, “as the Island of �鶹��ý continues to have periodic eruptions producing very recent deep-water lava flows, the last in May 2018, there are opportunities to study initial settlement patterns and appraise the impact hot, turbid, mineral-rich water from new flows has on coral communities.”

—By Marcie Grabowski

, associate director of the ‘s and director of the , donated $45,000 to the to create a new fund supporting Hawaiian monk seal research at the (SOEST). The fund was established in honor of Dunlap’s late husband, Danny Brooks (DB), and his tireless work researching and protecting Hawaiian monk seals on Oʻahu.

The DB and Marilyn Dunlap Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Fund will support monk seal research at the (JIMAR) at SOEST, particularly in its collaborative monk seal work with the (NOAA).

A valuable partner in monk seal conservation

DB Dunlap saw his first monk seal on Sandy Beach in 2001. Soon he was spending every day searching Oʻahu‘s coastlines or peering through binoculars at Rabbit Island from UH‘s , gathering voluminous details of Hawaiian monk seal behavior that now form a core of knowledge about local monk seal ethology.

DB was able to identify individual animals, all of whom were affectionately named, by both sight and the particular ways they moved. He also responded to monk seal sightings and beachings all over the island, to both observe and protect the seals.

From 2003–2017, he recorded almost 20,000 monk seal sightings on Oʻahu, sending daily reports and data to NOAA.

Honoring DB‘s life and dream

Marilyn Dunlap has been with UH Mānoa for almost 50 years, starting as a graduate student in in 1968. Knowing the unique challenges of funding in the sciences, she wanted her gift to be broadly flexible to allow JIMAR to use the funds according to the specific needs and opportunities of monk seal efforts each year.

“I want to support efforts to protect and preserve the species, and to honor DB and support the university,” she said. “I’m hopeful the gift will allow JIMAR and NOAA to do the work not supported by federal funding, and to continue to educate people about the seals and their value to the environment.”

For the , see the UH Foundation website.

—By Marcie Grabowski

Over the next three years, the  in the at the and its partners will receive more than $5 million from the in the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research line for sea level rise research.

One aspect of the new funding supports Multi-Model Seasonal Sea Level Forecasts for the U.S. Coast. It will combine several different models to produce experimental regional sea level outlooks months in advance for Pacific Islands including �鶹��ý, Puerto Rico and the entire continental U.S. Given that no seasonal prediction of coastal high water events currently exists on a national scale, this project will be invaluable to community members and community planners for long- and short-term decision-making. Ultimately, the research team will develop a web portal to provide the regional sea level outlooks to the public, including high-water alerts, which could be used for new or existing NOAA coastal flood products.

“The occurrence, duration and amplitude of coastal flooding events are increasing with rising sea levels,” said Mark Merrifield, lead investigator of the new seasonal sea level forecasts project and former director of the Sea Level Center. “The ability to assess when high regional sea levels are likely to occur will benefit managers and decision makers involved in coastal flooding mitigation.”

The other aspect of funding provides ongoing support for the Sea Level Center to collect and quality control tide gauge data from around the world through a cooperative agreement between NOAA and the . The Sea Level Center is the only group in the world that provides the public with up-to-date hourly sea level data from a global tide gauge network. These data are essential for studying sea level extremes and monitoring long-term global sea level rise.

“Support from NOAA enables the Sea Level Center to serve as a data center for sea level observations and maintain tide gauges in the Global Sea Level Observing System,” said Acting Director Philip Thompson. “With this substantial investment in sea level research and observations via the Sea Level Center, and with sea level rise being a big issue for the state, we are proud to be taking the lead on these new and continued efforts.”

—By Marcie Grabowski

A paper published this month by and researchers in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society details the development and utility of a computer model for the dispersion of volcanic smog or “vog,” which forms when volcanic sulfur dioxide gas interacts with water and coverts it to acid sulfate aerosol particles in the atmosphere.

Vog poses a serious threat to the health of �鶹��ý’s people as well as being harmful to the state’s ecosystems and agriculture. Even at the low concentrations, which can be found far from the volcano, vog can provoke asthma attacks in those with prior respiratory conditions. It also damages vegetation and crops downwind from the volcano.

News tools for predicting vog

Scientists from the UH Mānoa (SOEST), under the leadership of Professor of Meteorology Steve Businger, and in collaboration with researchers at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, developed a computer model for predicting the dispersion of vog. The vog model uses measurements of the amount of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emitted by Kīlauea, along with predictions of the prevailing winds, to .

The team of scientists developed an ultraviolet spectrometer array to provide near-real-time volcanic gas emission rate measurements; developed and deployed SO₂ and meteorological sensors to record the extent of Kīlauea’s gas plume (for model verification); and developed web-based tools to share observations and model forecasts, providing useful information for safety officials and the public and raising awareness of the potential hazards of volcanic emissions to respiratory health, agriculture and general aviation.

“Comparisons between the model output and vog observations show what users of the vog model forecasts have already guessed—that online model data and maps depicting the future location and dispersion of the vog plume over time are sufficiently accurate to provide very useful guidance, especially to those who suffer allergies or respiratory conditions that make them sensitive to vog,” said Businger.

A statewide concern

Kīlauea volcano, the most active volcano on earth, is situated in the populous State of �鶹��ý. The current eruption has been ongoing since 1983, while a new summit eruption began in 2008.

The most significant effect of this new eruption has been a dramatic increase in the amount of volcanic gas that is emitted into �鶹��ý’s atmosphere. While the effects of lava eruption are limited to the southeastern sector of the Big Island, the volcanic gas emitted by Kīlauea is in no way constrained; it is free to spread across the entire state.

“Higher gas fluxes from Kīlauea appear to be the new norm. For the State of �鶹��ý to understand the effects of vog and then come up with strategies to efficiently mitigate its effects, accurate forecasts of how vog moves around the state are vital,” said Businger.

The American Recovery Act award that originally funded the development of the vog model program has long since expired. Funding for a PhD candidate, Andre Pattantyus, to help keep the online vog products available has been provided by SOEST and the .

Because Pattantyus, the lead vog modeler, is set to graduate this winter, the vog program is at a crossroads. Businger is working with stakeholders that include federal, state, commercial and private interests to jointly fund an ongoing vog and dispersion modeling capability for the residents of �鶹��ý.

Public support of the vog modeling program is critical for the program to continue providing vog plume predictions in future.

—By Marcie Grabowski

Traditionally, it was assumed that corals do not face a risk of extinction unless they become very rare or have a very restricted range. A team of scientists from the , and the has revealed that global changes in climate and ocean chemistry affect corals whether scarce or abundant, and often it is the dominant, abundant corals with wide distributions that are affected the most.

The researchers evaluated both the geologic record of past extinctions and recent major events to assess the characteristics of dominant corals under various conditions. They determined that, during periods advantageous to coral growth, natural selection favors corals with traits that make them more vulnerable to climate change.

The last ten thousand years have been especially beneficial for corals. Acropora species, such as table coral, elkhorn coral and staghorn coral, were favored in competition due to their rapid growth. This advantageous rapid growth may have been attained in part by neglecting investment in few defenses against predation, hurricanes or warm seawater. Acropora species have porous skeletons, extra thin tissue and low concentrations of carbon and nitrogen in their tissues. The abundant corals have taken an easy road to living a rich and dominating life during the present interglacial period, but the payback comes when the climate becomes less hospitable.

Researchers from the UH Mānoa , the (Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center), and propose that the conditions driven by excess carbon dioxide in the ocean cause mortality at rates that are independent of coral abundance. This density-independent mortality and physiological stress affects reproductive success and leads to the decline of corals. Some coral species are abundant across a broad geographic range, but the new findings show that this does not safeguard them against global threats, including changing ocean chemistry and rising temperatures.

Nearly all the assessments and evaluations of the risk of extinction for a species of coral are made on the basis of how scarce or restricted in range it is. However, the new findings highlight the vulnerability of abundant and widely dispersed corals as well as corals that are rare and/or have restricted ranges.

Moving forward, the researchers hope to strengthen the case for directly addressing the global problems related to coral conservation.

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