Big Island Of Hawaii Research Articles

Two-dimensional mapping of impulsive ambient sound on a coral reef using vector sensors

Coral reef health is an important focus of tropical marine park management. Evidence exists that passive acoustic measurements of reef sound are associated with reef health and ecodiversity, but its utility would be enhanced by an ability to localize and map source distributions. Since much reef noise is impulsive, arising from both fish and crustaceans, localization could be achieved by collecting relative time-of-arrival information across synchronized spatially separated hydrophones. However, the sheer number of bioacoustic pulses in many reef environments can overwhelm attempts to associate sounds between sensors, Here we discuss how directional acoustic vector sensors sidestep these issues and permit 2-D mapping of thousands of pulses an hour, using data collected from two locations off the Big Island of Hawaii in 2020. At one location, three sensors spaced 20 m apart found acoustic activity was only present along the current-facing side of a 100 m long block reef. A second location set in the middle of more complex topography found several acoustic “hotspots” that remained stable over a month’s worth of measurements. A new generation of vector instrumentation is permitting this approach to be extended to crustacean noise in the kilohertz range. [Work sponsored by ONR and DARPA.]

Marine plastic litter detection offshore Hawai'i by Sentinel-2

Marine litter patches were detected from Sentinel-2 offshore Hawaii's Big Island (Hawaii) within 10 miles from the coast in the prevalent windward direction (NE), for a total sea surface of 3.0 km2. The patches have a filament-like shape with different orientation, lengths of several kilometers and width from tens to hundreds of meters. A comparison with the typical spectra of “sargassum” and “seaweed” patches emphasized differences in the red edge portion of the spectrum for large part of the filaments. Frequency of plastic pollution on Hawaiian beaches and spectral characteristics of the filaments suggest these patches largely consist of plastic debris. A detection method of plastic litter for Sentinel-2 data resampled at 20 m resolution based on the analysis of the red edge bands is proposed.

On the Possibility of Obtaining Geomagnetic Volcanic Records of the Short-Term Behavior of the Laschamp and Pringle Falls Excursions from the Long Sequence of Kahuku and Ninole Hills, Big Island of Hawaii, USA

On the Possibility of Obtaining Geomagnetic Volcanic Records of the Short-Term Behavior of the Laschamp and Pringle Falls Excursions from the Long Sequence of Kahuku and Ninole Hills, Big Island of Hawaii, USA

ASIAN FOOD IN HAWAII: THE FILIPINOS AND THEIR FOOD IN THE BIG ISLAND

Hawaii is the most Asian state in the United States of America. The majority of its Asian population is composed of the Filipinos and the Japanese due to their migration history. Since tourism is the number one industry in Hawaii and that the majority of the tourists are from Asia, Asian food is part of the gastronomical space in the archipelago. This paper presents a study on the Asian cuisine and the Filipino food in the Big Island of Hawaii particularly in the city of Hilo. As an interdisciplinary study, this paper analyses the Asian food by using the approaches from the humanities and the social sciences. It aims to provide an analysis of Asian cuisine in Hawaii with a focus on Filipino food and the Filipinos, particularly the young Filipino Americans who are heritage learners. This study makes use of ethnography, experiential approach, and heritage studies to find out the state of Filipino food, and the cultural identity of the young Filipino Americans in Hawaii. Findings show that the majority of the Asian cuisine in Hawaii is represented by the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Indians. Filipino food is mostly confined to the home, and it functions as a marker of loyalty, allegiance, and solidarity for the young Filipino Americans, thereby establishing their Filipino cultural identity.    Keywords: Filipino cuisine, heritage learners, Filipinos in Hawaii, migration, Asian food

Air quality impacts of the 2018 Mt. Kilauea Volcano eruption in Hawaii: A regional chemical transport model study with satellite-constrained emissions

Abstract Volcanic eruptions could bring a vast amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ash into the air, often imposing substantial impacts on air quality and the ecosystem. Quantifying its impacts, however, is difficult due to the uncertainties in estimating the strength and variations of volcanic emissions. Here we developed and evaluated a new approach to combine satellite SO2 detection and chemical transport modeling to assess the impact of the 2018 Mt. Kilauea eruption on air quality over Hawaii. During the sustained eruption of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii's Big Island from May to July 2018, considerable SO2 and PM2.5 enhancements were observed both from the ground and from space. We studied this case using an experimental version of the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) modeling system. Daily emissions of SO2 and ash were estimated using a combination of SO2 column density retrieved by Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) Nadir-Mapper (NM) aboard the Suomi-NPP satellite and the NAQFC model with an inverse emission modeling approach. We found that the volcanic SO2 emission rates peaked at 15,000 mol/s from the Kilauea's East Rift zone and Summit. The formation and transport of volcanic smog, or Vog, was highly dependent upon the vertical distribution of the volcanic emission, controlled by the heat flux of emission sources. We conducted four model simulations with various emission settings, and compared them to satellite data (CALIOP, OMPS and VIIRS) and in-situ measurements. All the runs tended to underpredict the peak values of surface SO2 and PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter). The “No Plume Rise” run underestimated the Vog plume rise and downstream transport. Using fixed emission rate or removing the temporal variations (”3-Day Mean”) led to miss peak Vog effects or inconsistent transport pattern compared to the observations. Therefore, the Base simulation with daily-varying emission and plume rise was used to quantify the air quality effects of the Kilauea eruption. We found that the volcanic eruption elevated surface PM2.5 concentration by 30–40 μg/m3 in the southeast part of the Big Island, with peak values up to 300 μg/m3. The Vog effect on trace gases, such as O3, NOx, and non-methane hydrocarbons, were much weaker (

Systematic Scatterometer Wind Errors Near Coastal Mountains.

Satellite scatterometers provide the only regular observations of surface wind vectors over vast swaths of the world oceans, including coastal regions, which are of great scientific and societal interest but still present challenges for remote sensing. Here we demonstrate systematic scatterometer wind errors near Hawaii's Big Island: Two counter‐rotating lee vortices, which are clear in the International Comprehensive Ocean‐Atmosphere Data Set ship‐based wind climatology and in aircraft observations, are absent in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Remote Sensing Systems scatterometer wind climatologies. We demonstrate similar errors in the representation of transient Catalina Eddy events in the Southern California Bight. These errors likely arise from the nonuniqueness of scatterometer wind observations, that is, an “ambiguity removal” is required during processing to select from multiple wind solutions to the geophysical model function. We discuss strategies to improve the ambiguity selection near coastal mountains, where small‐scale wind reversals are common.

2018 Kīlauea eruption

This article describes some of the meteorological aspects associated with the 2018 Kīlauea eruption on the Big Island of Hawaii, including a unique lava‐fuelled thunderstorm. The article analyses the mechanisms behind the formation of eruption‐related weather‐making pyrocumulus clouds. This paper also discusses some of the eruption‐related hazards and their effects on the residents.

Survey of flowering plants in Hawaii as potential banker plants of anthocorid predators for thrips control

Abstract Flowering plants in gardens and along roadsides on the Big Island of Hawaii were sampled for thrips and anthocorid predators of thrips. A total of 171 plant samples, comprising 859 plant sample units (e.g. flowers or flower clusters) were collected from 56 species of plants in 25 families. Adult thrips were found on 43 plant species, and 32 of these also had larval thrips of the same species, indicating the plant species was a breeding host for thrips. Five different species of anthocorids – Orius persequens, Orius tristicolor, Paratriphleps laeviusculus, Montandoniola confusa, and Blaptostethus pallescens – were collected on 22 different plant species in 10 plant families. The plants with the highest numbers of anthocorid adults and nymphs present were Macaranga tanarius (Blush Macaraga), Verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard), Tithonia diversifolia (Tree Marigold), Acalypha hispida (Chenille bush), and Coreopsis lanceolata (Lance-leaf Coreopsis). Macaranga tanarius was found to be the best host plant for anthocorids, with an average of 25.5 adult and 21.1 larval anthocorids per plant sample. Orius persequens was the most abundant anthocorid on M. tanarius with average adult and larval densities of 24.1 and 17.3 per plant sample, respectively. None of the insects found in association with M. tanarius are known pests. Macaranga tanarius has great potential as a banker plant to help suppress thrips populations in greenhouse crops with anthocorid predators.

Application of HVSR to estimating thickness of laterite weathering profiles in basalt

AbstractLateritic weathering profiles (LWPs) are widespread in the tropics and comprise an important component of the Critical Zone (CZ). The Hawaiian Islands make an excellent natural laboratory for examining the tropical CZ, where the bedrock composition (basalt) is nearly uniform and rainfall varies greatly. This natural laboratory is employed to assess the utility of the HVSR (horizontal/vertical spectral ratio) method to characterize the shear‐wave velocity (Vs) structure of LWPs, particularly the depth to the contact between saprolite and basalt bedrock.LWP thicknesses determined from HVSR provide good agreement with multi‐channel analysis of surface waves (MASW) profiles, well logs and outcrop. LWP thicknesses may be estimated from the fundamental mode equation or through forward models. Prior knowledge about the subsurface from well, outcrop, and MASW profiles may greatly aid modeling in some cases. For the 3.2 to 1.8 Ma Koolau Volcano on Oahu, the downward rate of advance of the weathering front varies from 0.004 to 0.041 m/ka. For the 0.44 to 0.10 Ma Kohala Volcano (Big Island of Hawaii) rates vary from 0.013 to 0.047 m/ka.Simple H/V spectra develop in areas where the combined effects of time and elevated rainfall produce thick LWPs with a flat base and a general absence of core stones with an ideal layered geometry. Abundant buried core stones violate the assumption of simple layered geometries and scatter acoustic energy, leading to uninterpretable results. This is common where low rainfall and a young basaltic substrate leave abundant core stones as well as an undulating contact between saprolite and bedrock. Velocity inversions (high Vs intervals within low Vs saprolite) may also be present and originate from relatively intact bedrock horizons or mineralogical changes within saprolite. At Kohala, a gibbsite‐rich horizon produces such a velocity inversion due to enhanced weathering and subsequent collapse of saprolite in a discrete horizon. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Land Use and Larval Habitat Increase Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) and Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) Abundance in Lowland Hawaii.

Vector abundance plays a key role in transmission of mosquito-borne disease. In Hawaii, Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae), the Asian tiger mosquito, has been implicated in locally-transmitted dengue outbreaks, while Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae), the southern house mosquito, is the primary vector of avian malaria, a wildlife disease that has contributed to declines and extinctions of native Hawaiian birds. Despite the importance of these introduced species to human and wildlife health, little is known about the local-scale drivers that shape mosquito abundance across lowland Hawaii, where forest, agricultural, and residential land uses are prevalent. We examined landscape, larval habitat, and climate drivers of Ae. albopictus and Cx. quinquefasciatus abundance in eight lowland wet forest fragments on the Big Island of Hawaii. We found that the abundance of both species increased with the proportion of surrounding developed land and the availability of larval habitat, which were themselves correlated. Our findings suggest that conversion of natural habitats to residential and agricultural land increases mosquito larval habitats, increasing the abundance of Ae. albopictus and Cx. quinquefasciatus and increasing disease risk to humans and wildlife in Hawaii. Our results further indicate that while source reduction of artificial larval habitats-particularly moderately-sized human-made habitats including abandoned cars and tires-could reduce mosquito abundance, eliminating larval habitat will be challenging because both species utilize both natural and human-made larval habitats in lowland Hawaii.

Eruption crisis at Kilauea Caldera (Big Island of Hawaii, USA)

Eruption crisis at Kilauea Caldera (Big Island of Hawaii, USA)

Dispersion and Optimization of Sequential Sampling Plans for Coffee Berry Borer (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Infestations in Hawaii.

Coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari, Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a serious pest of coffee in most coffee-growing areas of the world. This beetle was first detected in Big Island of Hawaii in 2010 and has since spread to other islands. Being an invasive pest that causes serious economic damage, efforts are in progress in Hawaii to develop an integrated approach to manage this pest. In this study, we sampled commercial coffee orchards from representative coffee-growing regions in the Big Island, Hawaii, to understand dispersion of the pest in the field and develop a reliable sampling plan based on the dispersion characteristics. Analysis of data collected from 12 commercial fields over three growing seasons suggests an aggregated pattern of dispersion of the pest in the field. Two fixed-precision sequential sampling plans based on berry cluster and branch as sample units were modeled and validated using Resampling for Validation of Sampling Plans software. The models suggest that infestation density can be estimated reliably for integrated pest management (IPM) practices with minimal sampling effort by sampling berry clusters or branches using sequential sampling plans. Sequential sampling plan based on berry cluster requires detection of fewer infested berries compared to branch sampling for a reliable estimation of mean density of infested berries and IPM decision making.

Sexual signal loss: The link between behaviour and rapid evolutionary dynamics in a field cricket.

Sexual signals may be acquired or lost over evolutionary time, and are tempered in their exaggeration by natural selection. In the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus, a mutation ("flatwing") causing loss of the sexual signal, the song, spread in <20 generations in two of three Hawaiian islands where the crickets have been introduced. Flatwing (as well as some normal-wing) males behave as satellites, moving towards and settling near calling males to intercept phonotactic females. From 2005 to 2012, we surveyed crickets and their responses to conspecific song, noting the morph and number of males and females before and after experimental playbacks. The three Hawaiian islands consistently contained different proportions of flatwing crickets, ranging from about 90% of males on Kauai to 50% on Oahu to rare on the Big Island of Hawaii. Flatwing and normal-wing males do not appear to differ in responsiveness to playback, a behaviour that should influence the likelihood of a male encountering a phonotactic female. Instead, male and female crickets from populations in which little to no calling song is perceptible during development tended to seek out callers more readily than crickets that developed in noisier environments. Such increased phonotaxis makes females more likely to find either the caller to which they are responding or to encounter a flatwing (or normal male satellite) that has also been attracted to the song. Our evidence suggests that pre-existing behavioural plasticity (manifest as flexible responses to social-particularly acoustic-information in the environment) is associated with the rapid spread of the flatwing trait. Different social environments select for differential success of flatwing or normal-wing males, which in turn alters the social environment itself.

Induced thermoluminescence as a method for dating recent volcanism: Hawaii County, Hawaii, USA

We have measured the induced thermoluminescence (TL) properties of fifteen samples of basalts collected from the Big Island of Hawaii in order to continue our investigation into the possible utility of this technique as a chronometer. Previous studies of basalts from Idaho have suggested the induced TL of basalts increases with age. Meteorite data suggest two possible explanations for this observation which are that (1) the initial glassy or amorphous phases crystalize with time to produce feldspar, the mineral producing the TL signal, and (2) feldspars lose Fe as they equilibrate and since Fe is a quencher of TL this would cause an increase in TL. The old basalts from Kohala (>100ka), which are mostly alkali basalts, have TL sensitivities 10–100 times higher than the much younger tholeiites from Kilauea and Mauna Loa (<50ka). The thermoluminescence of feldspars is strongly dependent on composition and when this is corrected for, using literature data, the slope of the regression line for the plot of log TL sensitivity against historic or radiometric age for the Hawaii basalts is within 2 sigma of the regression line for the analogous plot for the Idaho basalts, although the Hawaii line is much shallower (0.0015±0.0012 for Hawaii cf. 0.0039±−0.0014 for Idaho, 2σ uncertainties). However, the intercepts are significantly different (0.78±0.18 for Hawaii cf. −0.079±0.28 for Idaho, 2σ uncertainties). These results suggest that TL sensitivity has the potential to be a means of dating volcanism in the 0–800ka range, although the scatter in the data – especially for the <50ka samples – needs to be understood, and a means found for its removal, before the technique has the possibility of being practically useful.

Mating Behavior of the Endemic Hawaiian Cricket Leptogryllus elongatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae)

Hawaiian tree crickets are remarkably speciose and phenotypically diverse and yet we know very little about their behavior. I present the first description of courtship and mating in a member of this group. Leptogryllus elongatus Perkins inhabit the hollow fronds of giant tree ferns on the windward slope of Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Unlike all other tree crickets, except for the closely related genus Thaumatogryllus, Leptogryllus lack a stridulum to produce song and have no auditory tympanum. In the absence of song, courtship in L. elongatus appears to be vibratory and tactile, in the form of tremulation and tapping of the male cerci against the body of the female. Tremulation by male L. elongatus takes the form of a rhythmic “push-up” beginning at first contact and continuing until the postcopulatory dismount. During courtship, the male maneuvers his abdomen beneath the female and the female dorsally mounts the male. As in other tree crickets, copulation results in transfer of a small spermatophore composed on a external sperm sack and a tube running inside the genitalia of the dorsally mounted female. The rate of tremulation is relatively constant from first contact until copulation. Tremulation rate decreases after spermatophore transfer but increases dramatically when the female begins to move off the male. Another key difference is the lack of metanotal gland feeding in L. elongatus. Nevertheless, L. elongatus display prolonged postcopulatory mounted courtship which delays removal of the spermatophore by the female.

"H2Ride" Fuel Cell Plug-in Shuttle Bus Demonstration Project at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Hydrogen Fueling Demonstration Project on the Big Island of Hawaii

This paper describes the hydrogen infratsructure and hydrogen fuel cell shuttle bus demonstration programs that the Hawaii Natural Energy Instiute is conducting on the Island of Hawaii.

Results of a Longer Term NDACC Measurements Comparison Campaign at Mauna Loa Observatory

Between November, 2015 and January, 2015, the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) operated a pair of lidar instruments at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) facility at Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii (Latitude 19.5 degrees North, Longitude 155.5 degrees West, altitude 3.397 kilometers). Measurements were made during six different four week periods during this time period by both the NASA GSFC Stratospheric Ozone Lidar (STROZ) and the Aerosol and Temperature (ATL) lidar. Also making measurements were the JPL Stratospheric Ozone Lidar and the NOAA Aerosol and Water Vapor Lidar. All instruments participate and archive data with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Measurement comparisons were made among various instruments in accordance with the standard intercomparison protocols of the NDACC.

Precipitation efficiency derived from isotope ratios in water vapor distinguishes dynamical and microphysical influences on subtropical atmospheric constituents

AbstractWith water vapor and clouds expected to effect significant feedbacks on climate, moisture transport through convective processes has important implications for future temperature change. The precipitation efficiency—the ratio of the rates at which precipitation and condensation form (e = P/C)—is useful for characterizing how much boundary layer moisture recycles through precipitation versus mixes into the free troposphere through cloud detrainment. Yet it is a difficult metric to constrain with traditional observational techniques. This analysis characterizes the precipitation efficiency of convection near the Big Island of Hawaii, USA, using a novel tracer: isotope ratios in water vapor. The synoptic circulation patterns associated with high and low precipitation efficiency are identified, and the importance of large‐scale dynamics and local convective processes in regulating vertical distributions of atmospheric constituents important for climate is evaluated. The results suggest that high e days are correlated with plume‐like transport originating from the relatively clean tropics, while low e days are associated with westerly transport, generated by a branching of the jet stream. Differences in transport pathway clearly modify background concentrations of water vapor and other trace gases measured at Mauna Loa Observatory; however, local convective processes appear to regulate aerosols there. Indeed, differences between observed and simulated diurnal cycles of particle number concentration indicate that precipitation scavenges aerosols and possibly facilitates new particle formation when e is high. As measurements of isotope ratios in water vapor expand across the subtropics, the techniques presented here can further our understanding of how synoptic weather, precipitation processes, and climate feedbacks interrelate.

From war to science paradise.

Waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains on the Big Island of Hawaii, botany graduate student Gerry Cobian readies for his day's work, collecting plant leaves. When he gets the samples back to the lab, at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in Honolulu, he'll study the fungi that live inside

Determining the Origin of the Coffee Berry Borer Invasion of Hawaii

ABSTRACT The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), was first discovered in coffee farms on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2010, after over 200 yr of borer-free coffee production. Because there are multiple pathways by which H. hampei could have entered Hawaii from >50 coffee-producing nations that harbor the pest, determining the invasion route requires genetic analyses. A previous study identified 27 H. hampei cytochrome c oxidase subunit I haplotypes from around the world using phylogenetic analyses to identify putative species. We sequenced cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from specimens collected in Hawaii and conducted phylogenetic and haplotype network analyses to trace the route of invasion. We conducted a network analysis to trace the most likely pathway that H. hampei could have taken to Hawaii and a phylogenetic analysis to assess clade support for broader groupings in the network analysis that are unlikely to have recently hybridized. The Hawaiian haplotype...