{"id":56699,"date":"2017-02-23T13:25:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T23:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=56699"},"modified":"2019-02-28T15:09:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T01:09:55","slug":"tree-rings-and-bird-song-climate-change-research-at-uh-hilo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/02\/23\/tree-rings-and-bird-song-climate-change-research-at-uh-hilo\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change research at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo: tree rings and bird song"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_56710\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56710\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research.jpg\" alt=\"two people standing in lab next to a counter with tree trunk samples\" width=\"620\" height=\"440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-260x185.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56710\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Patrick Hart with Shea Uehana, a graduate student in the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Sciences Program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\">Climate change is on everyone&#8217;s radar and the need to figure out the environmental impacts caused by human consumption has been pushing the scientific community. Several research projects stimulated, conducted, and maintained at the <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> are working on this challenge by focusing on innovative methods and ideas that contribute to that field of study and expertise.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>See\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/2016\/10\/03\/climate-change-research-at-uh-hilo\/\">National Science Foundation releases $1 million to continue climate change research at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/faculty\/pjhart\/\">Patrick Hart<\/a><\/strong>, professor and chair of <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/depts\/biology\/\">biology<\/a> at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo, has kick-started a few projects in his department that have been ongoing for years.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are in a very key place for looking at climate change issues and looking at issues related to biodiversity,&rdquo; says Hart. &ldquo;We have this extinction crisis going on in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> while being in this incredible region of diverse plant and animal species which is fascinating. This dendrochronology research is instrumental in how we will predict future climate shifts on all levels along with being able to prepare for these changes while preserving some of our world&#8217;s most amazing plants and animals.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 15px 15px;\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-1.jpg\" alt=\"a graduate student holds a measuring instrument over a sliced diameter of a tree trunk\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-56713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-1-260x173.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 15px 15px;\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-2.jpg\" alt=\"microscope shining a light over a slice of tree trunk\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-56712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-2.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-2-260x173.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 0 15px;\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_56711\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56711\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-3.jpg\" alt=\"mamane specimens on lab table\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56711\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-3.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/hilo-Tree-ring-research-3-260x173.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56711\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">These m&#257;mane specimens are ready for study in Hart Lab, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Tree rings<\/h2>\n<p>Various graduate students have worked on this research alongside Hart, contributing to substantial strides in the science community. <strong>Shea Uehana<\/strong> is the current graduate student involved on the project&#8212;before him, <strong>Kainana Francisco<\/strong> and <strong>Tishanna Ben<\/strong> also partook in this inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>Tree rings are used in a variety of ways&#8212;they are used to calculate the age of a tree, climate conditions throughout the lifespan of the plant, health of the soil, previous precipitation, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Until very recently, it was believed that trees native to and living in tropical climates did not produce rings or did not produce them at the same frequency or accuracy as others in non-tropical climates.<\/p>\n<p>However, Uehana and Hart have discovered that some indigenous trees and nonnative trees surviving in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> do in fact produce rings in areas of high elevation. According to Hart, the most surprising thing was finding annual rings in a tropical tree in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;One of our main goals as an ecology lab is to find out how to preserve species,&rdquo; says Hart. &ldquo;We are interested in finding out how long it takes to restore certain trees. This study gives us information on how fast they grow, how old they get, and how long it takes them to mature and be useful.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>The m&#257;mane and the palila<\/h2>\n<p>Hart also conducts bird research that uses algorithms to identify bird songs and sounds, which allows scientists and researchers to identify birds in a particular area by just sound alone. The preservation of the endemic palila (<em>Loxioides bailleui<\/em>) bird is one of the focuses of this research.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>See\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/2015\/11\/12\/uh-hilos-new-bioacoustics-lab\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo&#8217;s new bioacoustics lab is helping revolutionize the field of ecology<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The m&#257;mane (<em>Sophora chrysophylla<\/em>), an endemic tree, provides food and habitat for the palila, hence the spawn of the tree ring research project.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This tree ring study has farther reaching impacts beyond environmental, it is also ecological,&rdquo; says Uehana. &ldquo;This study can help us learn how to predict things in the future. If we know the next ten years will be drought years and we know that the optimum conditions for the m\u0101mane are just the opposite, then we can deduce that it will not only be a bad decade for the m&#257;mane but also a bad decade for the palila.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The usefulness of prediction, Uehana says, is being able to take measures to counteract the bad cycles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;A <a href=\"http:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/2017\/02\/21\/climate-change-research-at-uh-hilo-tree-rings-and-bird-song\/\"><em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a> article written by Anne Rivera, a public information intern in the Office of the Chancellor, and photos by Zoe Coffman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor of biology Patrick Hart and his research team are studying the endemic m&#257;mane tree and palila bird to learn how to predict future environmental changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[254,93,14],"class_list":["post-56699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-biology","tag-climate-change","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56699"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91676,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56699\/revisions\/91676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}