{"id":212485,"date":"2025-03-20T10:27:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=212485"},"modified":"2025-03-20T10:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:27:31","slug":"best-early-career-researcher-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/20\/best-early-career-researcher-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark nursery habitat research earns PhD<\/abbr> candidate top international award"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"person
Dani Bartz presenting at the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Environmental DNA<\/abbr> Conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dani Bartz, a PhD<\/abbr> candidate in the Marine Biology Graduate Program<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa, earned the first place award for Best Early Career Researcher Talk at the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Environmental DNA<\/abbr> Conference<\/a>. The conference, hosted by the Southern eDNA<\/abbr> Society, took place in Wellington, New Zealand in February 2025.<\/p>\n

\"person<\/p>\n

Bartz\u2019s presentation, “Testing the Waters: An Interdisciplinary Assessment of Current and Historical Shark Nursery Habitat in Hilo Bay, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,” impressed the judges with its innovative approach to studying shark populations using environmental DNA<\/abbr> and local ecological knowledge.<\/p>\n

“It was an incredible honor to receive this award and represent UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa on an international stage,” Bartz said. “This recognition validates the hard work and interdisciplinary approach we\u2019ve taken to understand and protect these vital shark nursery habitats.”<\/p>\n

Tracking baby sharks<\/h2>\n

Juvenile sharks are often born and spend the first few years of life in shallow coastal areas called estuaries. These areas are changing a lot due to human activity, but scientists don\u2019t have much data on how these changes are affecting the sharks. To make matters worse, it\u2019s difficult to track sharks because they can be difficult to find, they move around a lot, and traditional tracking methods are expensive and not always ideal for newborn sharks due to their high sensitivity to capture stress.<\/p>\n

The study by Bartz et al. set out to understand how juvenile sharks have used Hilo Bay as a nursery habitat throughout time, relying on local ecological knowledge from fishers and community members to reconstruct a baseline estimate of shark populations for the last 75 years. To better understand the contemporary situation of sharks in Hilo Bay, the study also employed a method called environmental DNA<\/abbr>, where seawater was passed through filter papers and then these filters were sent to a lab for shark DNA<\/abbr> to be extracted off of them. Local knowledge showed that there are fewer juvenile scalloped hammerhead sharks now than in the past, a critically endangered species, and more blacktip sharks.<\/p>\n

To make this environmental DNA<\/abbr> testing work well with the unique characteristics of Hilo Bay, Bartz spent more than a year testing different methods around Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and developed a novel filtration device to combat the issues of high turbidity, freshwater influx and variable shark population numbers in Hilo Bay. This approach allows scientists to monitor shark populations with minimally-invasive methods, providing crucial data for conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

Bartz\u2019s eDNA<\/abbr> filtration system research was also developed through UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Patents2Products program<\/a>, aimed at translating innovative ideas into commercial opportunities.<\/p>\n