Tropical Conservation Biology & Environmental Science
Tropical Conservation Biology & Environmental Science Symposium
Date and Location: April 17th 2009, Campus Center 301
Format: TCBES Student Presentations (~15 minutes) and posters (you may use already existing posters)
Abstracts Due: March 20th 2009 (initial sign up in on-campus grad lounge, check your email for format)
Purpose: To Showcase our TCBES program
Incentives: Prizes for Best Presentation and Poster, Finding out about Research on Campus, Networking and Getting to Know your Campus and Local Scientific Community
Questions:
Please contact Don Price donaldp@hawaii.edu or Nancy Chaney chaney@hawaii.edu
Green Drinks Hilo 13 - Lucky 13!
It's that time again. Please join us at yet another new location this first Thursday of the month (March 5th)
at 6:00pm at Coqui's Hideaway, 1550 Kamehameha Ave, Hilo (just down
from Kens, across from the Tsunami clock). We'll be in the bar area on
the left side of the building.
WHO: Anyone striving to live green (and is thirsty this Thursday pm).
WHAT: Green Drinks HILO #13 -- beer/beverage drinking ...... An
informal group of scientists, contractors, business-people, students, spouses,
and other eco-friendly people that want to come together and share a meal and
stories.
WHERE: Coqui's Hideaway, 1550 Kamehameha Ave
WHEN: Thursday, Feb 5th @ 6pm til pau
WHY: To meet new people, fraternize, network, brainstorm sustainable solutions
to local environmental problems, eat and share stories.
As always, bike-riding, walkers, bio-diesel vehicles and
carpooling are highly encouraged!
Be there to save the planet - one chapter at a time.
Cheers and a hui hou,
Megan, Jackie & Matt
Other info:
1. The Kona GD meets the last Wed of the month ... if you wish to be on their
mailing list you can contact Angela Kang at angela@sustainablebliss.org
.... we both started up around the same time.
2. Sat 3/14 beach cleanup in Ka'u hosted by Hawai'i Wildlife Fund - contact Megan @ kahakai.cleanups@gmail.com for more info.
3. The Malama Act disposable trashbags for your car are now available for free at Hi5 locations island-wide thanks to much collaboration with Recycle Hawai'i and a dozen other agencies. Project spearheaded by 4 ambitious individuals of Sixth Day. For more info visit www.amalamaact.com. Help keep the 'aina clean, one small step at a time.
4. Also from Recycle Hawai'i, a 501c(3) non-profit, is the current creation of a Zero Waste Implementation Plan. For more info, see the Zero Waste page on www.recyclehawaii.org.
5. This semester Global Hope Hilo will be meeting every Tuesday, at 2pm, in front of the theaterby the monkey pod (in the UH campus). Everyone is welcome so come check it out, and
get involved! Or contact Global Hope <globalhopehawaii@gmail.com> .
What is Green Drinks?
Every month people from all over the world that have in interest in a greener planet meet for drinks in an informal setting known as Green Drinks. We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome, we will look after you and introduce you to the other attendee’s. It's a great way of catching up with people you know and making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along so there's always a different crowd making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network.These events are very simple and unstructured. Make friends, develop new ideas, do deals and forge a new organic future. It's a force for the greater good and we'd like to help spread the good to other cities. Forward this email to all your friends...
For more info please check out the website www.greendrinks.org (or for a chapter closer to you) - Also, the Honolulu Chapter is going strong too so be sure to check out their link.
Sponsored by the Hawaii Permanent Plot Network
(www.hippnet.hawaii.edu)
TITLE: Global Forest Observatories: An International Network Monitoring the Health of Tropical Forests
SPEAKER: Dr. Stuart Davies
Science Director, Center for Tropical Forest Science
WHEN: MONDAY, 15 December, at NOON
WHERE: UCB 101
(directions at http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/uhh/maps.php)
All are welcome!
See Semester Schedule Below
Tropical Conservation Biology & Environmental Science Weekly Seminar Series
TITLE: Hawaii Coral Reef Management
SPEAKER: Dr. William Walsh
Division of Aquatic Resources, Kailua-KonaWhen: Wednesday, 3 Dec, at 12pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
_____________________
TITLE: Ecology and conservation of Palila on Mauna Kea, Hawa`i
SPEAKER: Dr. Chris Farmer
USGS Biological Resources Division, Kilauea Field StationWhen: Wednesday, 19 November, at 12pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
All are welcome!
ABSTRACT: The Palila (Loxioides bailleui) is one of the few remaining endemic Hawaiian birds, and the only finch-billed seed specialist in the main Hawaiian Islands. It was one of the first species listed under the original Endangered Species Act (1967), was the plaintiff in a seminal series of environmental lawsuits (1979-1988), and the conservation of this species and its habitat are still highly controversial issues in the Hawaiian Islands. My talk will focus upon our research on the subalpine māmane-naio forest; the Palila’s dependence upon this habitat for food, nesting, and roost sites; patterns of forest regeneration and recovery; and ungulate impacts on the forest. I will also talk about the specialized life history of Palila, its population dynamics, and our translocation efforts on Mauna Kea. Finally, I will synthesize and discuss the ramifications of this research for conservation of the Palila and the entire subalpine ecosystem.
TITLE: Ecology and restoration of temperate grasslands and tropical dry forests
SPEAKER: Dr. Jason Adolf
Marine Science Department, UH HiloWhen: Wednesday, 12 November, at 12pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
All are welcome!
ABSTRACT: Phytoplankton are important primary producers in coastal marine ecosystems and sensitive indicators of ecosystem change resulting from natural and / or anthropogenic processes.
TITLE: Ecology and restoration of temperate grasslands and tropical dry forests
SPEAKER: Dr. Erin Questad
Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, USDA Forest Service
When: Wednesday, 5 November, at 12pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
All are welcome!
ABSTRACT: Habitat destruction and environmental degradation have caused entire
ecosystems to become endangered. Temperate tallgrass prairies and tropical dry forests
are two of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world. Understanding the ecology of these
remnant ecosystems is essential for their preservation. It is also important to determine
which ecosystem elements can be restored in the degraded habitats that surround these remnants.
TITLE: Biosphere-Atmosphere Exchange of Reactive
Nitrogen:
Genes to Ecosystems
SPEAKER: Dr. Jed P. Sparks
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University
WHERE: PB-13-2
ABSTRACT: Human activities have
dramatically increased the production of reactive nitrogen with significant
environmental impacts. Ecologists usually focus on the effects of wet and
dry nitrogen deposition on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem function. However,
the addition of reactive nitrogen to the atmosphere has a strong influence on
both air quality and the climate system. In this presentation, I describe the
various relationships gaseous reactive nitrogen has with both air quality and
the climate system and our current understanding of the flux between the land
surface and the atmosphere. I will then present work my lab group has
done investigating the flux of reactive nitrogen at a variety of scales.
At the molecular scale, we have used RT-PCR to explore the upregulation of
genes related to nitrogen transport and antioxidant biochemistry during
fumigation by reactive nitrogen. At the whole plant level, we have used
gas exchange, biochemical, and isotopic information to describe leaf mechanisms
of uptake and assimilation. Finally, we have used eddy covariance and
thermal decomposition chemiluminescence methods to measure ecosystem-level
exchange of reactive nitrogen. These efforts together have demonstrated
that the foliar incorporation of reactive nitrogen is a significant source of
nutrition to many plant species, the total flux of reactive nitrogen to the
atmosphere is significantly altered by natural ecosystems, and that
understanding the exchange processes of reactive nitrogen has significant
influences on regional air quality and global temperature.
TITLE: Tracking Microevoluiton over Millenia using Ancient DNA?
SPEAKER: Dr. Yvonne Chan
EPSCoR Evolutionary and Ecology Genetics Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of Hawaii at Manoa
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, 8 October, at 12 pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
ABSTRACT: If we could look back in time and see species change over thousands of years, what would we see? History leaves an imprint on the genetic variability of the species. At the heart of the fields of population genetics and evolution is using modern genetic variation to reconstruct the past. But what if instead of indirectly inferring the past, we could actually track what happened over time? Using subfossil material from two sites, one in
TITLE: Dynamics of the coqui frog invasion in Hawaii
SPEAKER: Dr. William Mautz
Professor, Department of Biology
University of Hawaii at Hilo
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, 24 September, at 12 pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
Coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui),
introduced to Hawaii around 1988, have been aggressively spreading
through wet forests of Hawaii Island and have achieved population
densities up to 3 times those in native Puerto Rico. Coqui frog
populations in Hawaii are largely unrestrained by predators or
competitors. Although the impact of this biological invasion on
humans is well known in Hawaii, the ecological effects remain obscure.
All are welcome!
_________________________
TITLE: Molecular ecology of coral holobiont:
PCR opens a Pandora's Box out of a monster
SPEAKER: Dr. Misaki Takabayashi
Department of Marine Science
University of Hawaii at Hilo
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, 17 September, at 12 pm
WHERE: PB-13-2
Is
coral an animal, mineral, or vegetable? It is all three in one, hence a
monster. A beautiful, mysterious monster. Before the days of advanced
molecular genetic techniques, corals were thought of as a simple
symbiosis between a basal animal and unicellular algae. However over
the last decade, PCR-based molecular genetic techniques have revealed
that it is a complex multiple-partner system with various biological
functions provided by bacterial and algal symbionts. The genomics of
corals have also revealed that corals are not as simple as we had once
thought: genetically they are more similar to humans than fruit flies
that are often used in medical genetic research as model organisms.
Best-kept secrets of a monster are revealed by molecular technologies,
yet they come at a price of Pandora's box full of tribulations.
All are welcome!
_________________________
Dr. Caroline Gross, Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences
University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
"The role of
disturbance in the ecology of endangered plant species – case studies from
Date: Wednesday, 10 September, 2008
Time: 12:00-1:00
Place: PB 13-2 (University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Main Campus)
WHO: GREEN DRINKS HILO 8
WHAT: An informal group of
scientists, contractors, businessmen, students, spouses and other
Earth-loving people that come together to talk story and share a meal
WHERE:
Leleiwi, Keauhaka (past the Port of Hilo)
WHEN: Thursday September 4th from
5:30pm til pau
WHY: To meet new people, fraternize, brainstorm sustainable
solutions, eat & share ono kine grinds, enjoy the outdoors, tell jokes ...
etc.
Aloha mai kakou,
Due to the positive turn out for Green Drinks 7 through
all the rain and drizzle of early August ... we have collectively decided to
keep the GD events a beach-front activity from now until further notice. This
encourages both families with small children and our pot-luck style Thursday
evenings (plus it's great not to get taxed on brew as we all BYOB). We have
been meeting at the first set of Leleliwi pavilions (aka Wai'Olena) but last
time it was a full house and so we opted for a table at the second set (aka
Waiuli). Regardless, it should be pretty easy to find us unless you have
direction skills like Shenandoah ;-)
Anyways, please come to Green
Drinks 8 this Thursday (Sept 4th) and share your stories
(especially green-minded, sustainable ones), ecofriendly positivity and
something yummy to eat and/or drink (brew, wine, water, tea). Invite any and
all who care about the Earth, and forward this email around as you see fit. The
details are summarized below:
WHO: GREEN DRINKS HILO
8
WHAT: An informal group of scientists, contractors, businessmen,
students, spouses and other Earth-loving people that come together to talk story
and share a meal
WHERE: Leleiwi, Keauhaka (past the Port of Hilo)
WHEN:
Thursday September 4th from 5:30pm til pau
WHY: To meet new people,
fraternize, brainstorm sustainable solutions, eat & share ono kine grinds,
enjoy the outdoors, tell jokes ... etc.
F.Y.I. Sustainable Island
Products is still providing biodegradable plates, napkins, cane-based cups and
forks - thanks Jesse! Also, if you do want to grill something you'll need to
bring some charcoal.
As always, bike-riding, bio-diesel vehicles and
carpooling are highly encouraged!
NEWSWORTHY Happenings (to keep you
in the loop):
1) This week major Harry Kim may veto the "Ban on Plastic
Bags" bill. Please take the time to send him an email (cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us) and give
him the message to malama 'aina and vote FOR the ban. As you well know, living
on an island we are a much more vulnerable system and it is important that we
limit what and how many materials are imported here (and what we do with them
afterwards). "It is more than convenience to people. The ecologically damaging,
wasteful consumer society has to change. Europe has done it, many cities and
counties in US are converting to reusable bags. Retailers will save money in the
end. Island Naturals Stores have converted in a matter of months
and customers are very pleased to personally make a difference and protect
Hawaii. Hawaii County is already spending several hundred thousand dollars a
year in overtime alone picking up windblown bags to avoid state Dept. of Health
fines."
2) Last but not least: Come and join us for the national "Get
the Drift and Bag It" Day here in Hawaii taking place on Saturday September 20th
(yes, also the day of primaries - but the polls are open from 7am - 7pm so there
is time to both help collect marine debris and VOTE)!!! Hawaii Wildlife Fund is
sponsoring a cleanup event near South Point in Ka'u - for more information email
or call me at 769-7629. Otherwise, email Terry (terry_miura@yahoo.com) about a beach
cleanup site closer to you.
Cheers and a hui hou, Megan & Jackie