{"id":82803,"date":"2018-08-03T16:07:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T02:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=82803"},"modified":"2020-03-05T16:13:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T02:13:09","slug":"rapid-ohia-death-impact-on-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/08\/03\/rapid-ohia-death-impact-on-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Hilo earns grant to study Rapid \u02bb\u014chi\u02bba Death’s impact on animals"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Forest
Along with decimating native ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> forests, Rapid ʻ\u014chiʻa<\/span> Death poses a serious threat to the plants and animals that depend on ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> trees. Photo: Department of Land and Natural Resources.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kristina Paxton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
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Patrick Hart<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> will examine the effect of Rapid ʻ\u014chiʻa<\/span> Death (ROD<\/abbr>) on animal communities in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> with a $197,056 grant from the National Science Foundation Grants for Rapid Response Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This project will use advances in recording technology to continuously record over an extended period of time the entire sound-producing animal community within ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> forests across Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island,” said Kristina Paxton<\/a><\/strong>, adjunct assistant professor of tropical conservation biology and environmental science. “By using soundscape analysis tools developed within the growing field of soundscape ecology, we will be able to rapidly assess changes in the biodiversity of audible birds, insects, and amphibian species associated with the mortality of ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> across the landscape.\u201d <\/p>\n

Paxton and Patrick Hart<\/a><\/strong>, professor of biology, both members of the Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems Bioacoustics Lab, will evaluate whether the diversity and composition of understory plant species moderates how reliant animal communities respond to the loss of a dominant forest tree species.<\/p>\n

“The use of soundscape indices to model biodiversity following the loss of a foundation species represents a novel and relatively rapid method for assessing ecological change, and would be applicable in a range of ecosystems outside of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,” Paxton said.<\/p>\n

Serious threat to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s forest plants and animals<\/h2>\n

ROD<\/abbr> is a fungal pathogen causing rapid and widespread mortality of ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> (Metrosideros polymorpha<\/em>), a foundation tree species in Hawaiian forests. ROD<\/abbr> poses a serious threat to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s remaining native forests and the plants and animals that depend on ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span>. ROD<\/abbr> research has been concentrated on understanding the pathology of the disease, how ROD<\/abbr> is spread and the impacts of ROD<\/abbr> on ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> trees.<\/p>\n

“Despite these studies, however, there has not been an examination of how ROD<\/abbr> is affecting animal communities reliant on ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> forests, which is an important nesting substrate and food resource for both insectivorous and nectarivorous Hawaiian forest birds, 57 percent of which are threatened or endangered,” Paxton explained. “Given the foundational role of ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> in Hawaiian forests as the dominant tree in the canopy, widespread or total loss of ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> would likely be catastrophic for endemic Hawaiian forest birds.”<\/p>\n

The grant award ends June 30, 2019.<\/p>\n

For more, see the UH<\/abbr> Hilo news release<\/a> and UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Alyson Kakugawa-Leong<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While research has been done on the disease, the UH<\/abbr> Hilo study will be the first to examine how the loss of ʻ\u014dhiʻa<\/span> forests affect the many native species of Hawaiian birds.<\/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":[254,1018,14,907],"class_list":["post-82803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-biology","tag-rapid-ohia-death","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82803","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=82803"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112620,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82803\/revisions\/112620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}