university of hawaii

Keeping The Keeling Curve Going | Earth Wise

March 21, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The world’s longest-running record of direct readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is the Keeling Curve, measurements taken at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The readings have been going on with almost no interruption since Charles Keeling began taking them in the 1950s. But the eruption of Mauna Loa last November toppled power lines at the mountaintop observatory and buried a mile of the main road up the mountain in lava.

Scientists have been scrambling to resume measurements and the near-term solution has been to take them, for the first time, on Mauna Kea, the neighboring large volcano about 25 miles away. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew in and installed instruments at the Mauna Kea observatory so that only about a week went by without measurements. It happened so quickly because months earlier, NOAA had already started looking into installing a backup site on Mauna Kea where there is an observatory run by the University of Hawaii.

NOAA used helicopters to install solar panels and batteries on Mauna Loa to restore power in the short term since it will be months before a new road can be built on the still-cooling lava. The plan is to collect parallel measurements for a year to see if Mauna Kea, which hasn’t erupted for thousands of years, might become a long-term backup for Mauna Loa.

The Hawaiian volcanoes are uniquely suited for the measurements because they are surrounded by thousands of miles of empty ocean and are very high up, away from towns, cars, and forests. Scientists are now monitoring measurements from the two sites to see how they compare.

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Battling Lava and Snowstorms, 2.5 Miles Above the Pacific

Photo, posted November 2, 2015, courtesy of Neal Simpson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Devastating Threat To Coral Reef Habitats | Earth Wise

March 25, 2020 By EarthWise 2 Comments

According to new research from scientists at the University of Hawaii Manoa, the warming and acidifying oceans could wipe out nearly all existing coral reef habitats by 2100. In fact, the researchers predict that 70-90% of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years alone as a consequence of climate change and pollution.

Some organizations are attempting to save coral habitats by transplanting live corals from labs to reefs. The idea is that the new young corals will help revive the reefs. But after mapping where such restoration efforts would be most successful, the research indicates that there will be little to no suitable habitat remaining for corals by 2100. Small portions of Baja California and the Red Sea are two of the sites that could remain viable by 2100, although neither are ideal due to their proximity to rivers. Sea surfaces temperature and acidity are two of the most important factors in determining the viability of a site for restoration.

Warming ocean waters stress corals, which cause them to expel the symbiotic algae living inside them. This turns the often colorful corals white – an event known as coral bleaching. Bleached corals are not dead corals, but they are at a higher risk of dying. These coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent as a result of the changing climate.

The projected increases in human pollution will only play a minor role in the future elimination of coral reef habitats. Ironically, that’s because humans have already caused such extensive damage to coral reefs that there aren’t many locations left to impact.

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Warming, acidic oceans may nearly eliminate coral reef habitats by 2100

Photo, posted September 28, 2009, courtesy of Matt Kieffer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New Kind Of Coral Nursery

October 22, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Coral reefs around the world are struggling from warming waters and increasing ocean acidification driven by excess carbon dioxide. Many of the world’s greatest reefs – such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – have seen steep declines over the past decade.

But apart from the global environmental threat, reefs also are often damaged by various marine accidents such as ships grounding on them. Such events can severely damage a reef and scatter countless small coral fragments onto the seafloor. These small pieces of coral are not actually dead; they can continue on with their lives if they are relocated to a suitable environment such as a coral nursery.

Coral nurseries are generally small installations that allow coral fragments – typically pieces about 4 inches in length – to recover from their reef breaking up and to grow until they are large enough for conservation managers to replant them into reefs that need them. This strategy works well in places where corals grow relatively quickly – such as Florida and the Caribbean – but not as well in places where coral grows more slowly, such as Hawaii.

Recently, coral experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration working with mechanical engineering students at the University of Hawaii have developed a new type of coral nursery that can save fully formed coral colonies as opposed to small coral fragments.

The nurseries are large, carefully designed structures that can be loaded up with corals that have become detached from their reefs. Some of these new structures were installed in the waters of Oahu in the summer of 2018 and were populated with corals. The relocated corals, which would have otherwise died, are now recovering nicely in their new coral daycare centers and will soon be replanted back into the reef.

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NOAA Develops A New Type of Coral Nursery

Photo, posted July 29, 2010, courtesy of Kyle Taylor via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Extreme Botany

December 17, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The threat of extinction of many animal species is something that makes headlines. But there are also thousands of critically endangered plants in the world and that situation has not generated nearly the same sense of urgency. Some biologists have used the term “plant blindness” to describe humanity’s inability to appreciate the ecological and economic importance of plants.

[Read more…] about Extreme Botany