Biology Department News

By Susan Enright. 

Ever the educator, Patrick Hart, a professor of biology at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo who specializes in the conservation of Hawaiian forests and forest birds, has teamed up with Hawai‘i Public Radio to produce an ongoing series called Manu Minute featuring a different native bird each week.

“We have had two segments now,” says Hart. “[The series] will run during ‘The Conversation’ on HPR every Wednesday. We will focus on a different bird each week, leading with the bird’s song, then me talking about the natural history and conservation of the bird, and ending with its song again, all in one minute.”

According to Hart’s bio, he specializes in behavioral ecology, community ecology, and conservation of Hawaiian forests and forest birds. The conservation of Hawaiian forest birds has been a major theme of much of his past and current research. Most recently, Hart is focusing on four basic research areas: 1) the use of bioacoustics to address a variety of questions relating to bird conservation and behavior in both Hawaiʻi and Costa Rica, 2) dendrochronology to better understand the history and dynamics of Hawaiian forests and climate, 3) Hawaiian forest bird inventory and monitoring, and 4) Hawaiian forest inventory and monitoring.

In the new Manu Minute radio series, the audio of each bird song is made from field recordings conducted by Hart’s Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems (LOHE) Lab. In addition to the audio of the bird’s song and Hart’s narrative, each published segment includes a descriptive article about the species written by Hart, photos of the bird, and an image of the spectrogram of the bird’s song showing the details of the unique sound of each bird.

The Manu Minute debuted on Oct. 17 with the ‘i‘iwi or scarlet honeycreeper. An excerpt of Hart’s description of the bird:

The scarlet honeycreeper, also known as the ‘i‘iwi, gets its name from the bright red plumage on its body. Native Hawaiians valued the bird for its vivid color, and often incorporated the feathers of the ‘i‘iwi into elaborate ahu‘ula (feathered cloaks) and mahiole (feathered helmets) for ali‘i.

While an adult scarlet honeycreeper is easy to spot, juvenile ‘i‘iwi have more subdued plumages of orange, yellow, and brown, which helps them to camouflage as they learn their way through Hawai‘i’s native forests.

This week, Hart’s Manu Minute features the amakihi, a species “among the last native non-shore birds that can be found near sea level.”

Hart says he just learned this second segment is in the top ten most popular posts on HPR for the year.

Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.

“I treat the students like family and each time they make progress, I feel like a proud parent,” says biologist Li Tao about the transition to online teaching.

By Emily Burkhart.

Li Tao teaches a lab class remotely. Courtesy photo

For University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo biology professor Li Tao, the switch to online education is challenging, but he keeps an even keel thanks to students, faculty, and administrative cooperation amidst the shifting demands of the new learning format.

“As a professor, my duty has never changed as my utmost priority is supporting the students’ success,” he says.

Tao’s kind, calm, and collected approach reassures his upper-division cell biology students that they will not be given a source of added stress. His commitment to seeing things from student perspectives has garnered praise during this time of uncertainty. In an anonymous survey submitted last spring, students wrote they were impressed with the biologist’s organizational skills.

He “uploaded recorded lectures in a timely fashion,” writes one student about Tao’s cell biology class. “He would make sure his lectures were uploaded before the times our class would actually meet. This really helped to maintain the same study schedule as I had with face to face courses.”

Though the biologist’s students attribute the smooth transition to Tao’s methodical style, he believes it’s because “students were very cooperative and understanding of the current pandemic situation” as well as the united efforts of the biology department.

“Transitioning these courses online has not been easy,” says Tao, “but I would say that it has been successful because we have a great faculty team in the biology department. We exchange our ideas and methods through frequent departmental Zoom meetings and emails to find the best way for a course to be taught.”

Tao has made the in-person lab components of his courses, where students can come into his research lab at UH Hilo and work on special projects, available this semester on a voluntary basis. Necessary accommodations are also made for anyone off-island to successfully learn the concepts online.

Despite the success Tao is having, he acknowledges that students are facing new challenges learning in an off-campus environment. Before he uploads any lectures, he creates multiple formats of a lecture and then puts on his student hat to ask, “would [this] be understandable from a student’s perspective?” to find the most suitable option.

The biologist, whose research focuses on cell division mechanisms, an integral component of cancer research, draws on his career in academia in formulating his approach to online teaching. He received his doctor of philosophy in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California at Davis after coming to the United States in 2001. Before joining the UH Hilo campus in 2014, he conducted postdoctoral research at UC Davis and worked as a project scientist at UC Santa Cruz. He was promoted to associate professor last year and continues to deliver his sought-after biology courses, adapting well to the new needs of his students.

“Since everything is online, students can get easily distracted, compared to an in-person class,” he notices. To complement the intricacies and complex details of cell biology course material, he draws on current events to engage students in his lectures, striving to meet students where they are. “One of my strengths as a teacher is my ability to sum things up using simple analogies and making them easier to remember.”

This semester, which Tao had originally intended to take as a sabbatical to conduct collaborative research and apply for grants, has brought its biggest challenge in the form of finding balance.

“It’s been quite busy and challenging as I have to teach and perform my own research at the same time. I have to juggle between mentoring students and postdocs, performing collaborative research with other professors, applying for grants, and of course teaching my classes,” he says.

Despite this, Tao has continued to put students first. To combat the new stress he has seen spike in students, he strives to always “put the student’s wellbeing as my top priority and make sure to give out clear instructions and expectations, assuring them that they will succeed in my classes under my guidance and mentoring.”

One way of accomplishing this has been his personal rule of responding to student requests by initiating communication, usually via a Zoom call, within 30 minutes. “I always try to look from their angle in order to understand their situation.”

Tao understands that everyone is in this pandemic together and that interdependence at the university makes the campus community stronger. He says playing important roles creating this supportive environment are the college dean, department chair, the university disability center, and the university’s CARES program (a federal program—the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act—established in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States).

Tao notes this multi-pronged support system is put in place “to make sure that any student with special needs can get immediate attention.”

“I treat the students like family and each time they make progress, I feel like a proud parent,” he says.

Though Tao is juggling many commitments this semester, his exemplary leadership has earned him recognition from his students because of his genuine concern and care for their development as biologists and as people.

Story by Emily Burkhart, a senior double majoring in English, and Gender and Women’s Studies, at UH Hilo.

The researchers credit collaboration between the university, the federal forest service, the county, and an independent lawyer with the success of Bill 178, meant to create two additional native forest dedications, including a tax incentive for property owners in Hawai‘i county.

By Susan Enright. 

Research at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo on hybrid forest ecosystems is directly behind the creation of a bill currently under consideration at the Hawai‘i County Council. Bill 178 is an amendment to the current Hawaiʻi County Property Tax Code. Under the proposed property tax amendments, Bill 178 would create two additional native forest dedications: 1) a functional forest and 2) a successional forest land-use dedication. These changes would allow private landowners to receive reduced property tax rates for native forest restoration on Hawaiʻi Island, and promote the islandwide engagement of preserving native forests.

The bill has passed two hearings unanimously with the next scheduled for Aug. 5. If it passes the next hearing and is approved by Mayor Harry Kim, it will become law.

• Update: At the Aug. 5 hearing, the Hawai‘i County Council unanimously approved the bill. It now goes to mayor for signature.
• Update: The mayor signed the bill into law on Aug. 17, 2020.

Forest ecosystems expert Rebecca Ostertag, a professor of biology and associate program chair of the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science (TCBES) graduate program at UH Hilo, and her colleague Susan Cordell of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, are working directly with environmental lawyer Leslie Cole-Brooks, who wrote the bill.

In addition, UH Hilo student Sebastian Wells, in the professional internship track of the TCBES graduate program and advised by internship coordinator Lisa Canale, is working as an intern this summer with the County of Hawaiʻi Real Property Tax Office under the guidance of Lisa Miura, division head administrator at the tax office. Among his many duties, Wells is developing communication tools for the public and training county employees in evaluating forest management plans.

“My role as an intern is to develop documents that would support the implementation of the proposed legislation as it will help streamline the process for the county, helping them to effectively and efficiently evaluate forestry management plans while also providing landowners with the tools they need in order to maximize the success of their native forest restoration endeavors,” Wells says.

Background

Ostertag explains that about two years ago, she and Cordell were contacted by the County of Hawai‘i to give a presentation to a working group convened to analyze the current property tax programs related to agriculture and to propose suggestions to the county council for change. A subset of the agricultural programs is a Native Forest Program that is intended to promote open space and the persistence of native plants.

“We did our presentation in October 2018,” says Ostertag. “We talked about our research on the Liko Nā Pilina project, which is developing a new restoration technique using native and non-native, non-invasive species in combination to keep out the highly invasive plants.”

In May 2019, the two forest advocates were contacted by environmental lawyer Cole-Brooks, who heard about Ostertag and Cordell’s research through a member of the county council. Discussions took place about rewriting the county code to allow for a cheaper tax rate, an incentive, for doing restoration and to add this incentive to the native forest dedication already on the books, in which there was no direct credit for restoration.

“We added categories for doing native forest restoration, functional forest restoration—an outgrowth of our years working in Liko Nā Pilina—and successional forest restoration,” explains Ostertag. “We spent a whole year developing this and Leslie did the legwork of writing the code and doing outreach to a lot of people.”

Ostertag then recruited graduate student Wells to work on the project. Among other work, Wells is helping the tax office with communicating about the program to the public, making species lists, developing guidelines for the forest management plans that owners need to write and how the county can evaluate the plans.

Collaboration and Applied Learning

Ostertag credits the collaboration between the university, the U. S. Forest Service, the county, and the independent lawyer with the success of the bill.

“It’s super exciting that the bill is based on years of research, and how that basic research expanded and blossomed into policy and training applications.”

That training can be seen most clearly in the work of graduate student Wells. Among his many duties in regard to Bill 178, he is working on the following:

• Creating digital habitat suitability maps with a Geographic Information System (GIS) that will show the ranges and types of native plants that can be used for forest restoration efforts throughout Hawaiʻi county
• A corresponding list of native and non-native non-invasive plant species that can be used to maximize the success of native forest restoration projects based on elevation and rates of precipitation
• Developing an evaluation criterion that the county can use to track private landowners progress
• The development of guidelines for forestry and natural resource management professionals to use to write native forest assessment reports and whether landowners are adhering to the guidelines for native forest dedication
• Quantifying the economic value of native forests based on the ecosystem services they provide the residents of Hawaiʻi county
• Upon completion, train staff at the Hawaiʻi County Real Property Tax Division how to use these documents

“So far I have completed the plant species list and the annotated bibliography quantifying the economic value of native forests and am now starting to work on forestry management plans that will be used by the county and the property owners who are interested in dedicating their land to one of three native forest dedications outlined in Bill 178,” Wells explains. “I have also submitted verbal and written testimony in support of Bill 178 during the last two hearings on July 7th and July 22nd, and I also plan on submitting another round of verbal and written testimony during the last hearing on August 5th.”

Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.

Update Sept. 8, 2020: Interview with ThinkTech Hawaii, featuring Leslie Cole Brooks, Rebecca Ostertag, and Susan Cordell. Host is Jay Fidell. 

The work by Matthew Knope and research colleagues argues that animals have not only evolved increased resiliency to environmental change, but have also made the physical environment increasingly more stable.

A review article by University of Hawai‘i at Hilo evolutionary ecologist Matthew Knope, and a collaborative research team from several universities, was published June 12, 2020, at The Royal Society’s Interface Focus. The article, “The evolution of complex life and the stabilization of the Earth system,” is the product of an invited paper presented to The Royal Society, delivered by team member Jonathan Payne, chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at Stanford University, CA, on behalf of the group.

The work focuses on the evolution of complex life, and posits that animals have not only evolved increased resiliency to environmental change, but have also made the physical environment increasingly more stable, helping to explain the well-documented decrease in background extinction rates in the animal fossil record over the past 500 million years.

“Scientists have long been interested in better understanding the feedbacks between the living and non-living components of Earth across time,” says Knope. “Based on evidence from paleontology, geochemistry, and comparative physiology, we argue that the evolution of complex life, on the whole, has actually decreased volatility in the climate system, and increased the habitability of the planet for animals, including ourselves.”

Abstract

The half-billion-year history of animal evolution is characterized by decreasing rates of background extinction. Earth’s increasing habitability for animals could result from several processes: (i) a decrease in the intensity of interactions among species that lead to extinctions; (ii) a decrease in the prevalence or intensity of geological triggers such as flood basalt eruptions and bolide impacts; (iii) a decrease in the sensitivity of animals to environmental disturbance; or (iv) an increase in the strength of stabilizing feedbacks within the climate system and biogeochemical cycles.

There is no evidence that the prevalence or intensity of interactions among species or geological extinction triggers have decreased over time. There is, however, evidence from palaeontology, geochemistry and comparative physiology that animals have become more resilient to an environmental change and that the evolution of complex life has, on the whole, strengthened stabilizing feedbacks in the climate system.

The differential success of certain phyla and classes appears to result, at least in part, from the anatomical solutions to the evolution of macroscopic size that were arrived at largely during Ediacaran and Cambrian time. Larger-bodied animals, enabled by increased anatomical complexity, were increasingly able to mix the marine sediment and water columns, thus promoting stability in biogeochemical cycles.

In addition, body plans that also facilitated ecological differentiation have tended to be associated with lower rates of extinction. In this sense, Cambrian solutions to Cambrian problems have had a lasting impact on the trajectory of complex life and, in turn, fundamental properties of the Earth system.

Knope’s research on evolution and extinction rates is making a big impact on the field. Notably, in 2016, was the publication of his collaborative work on the emerging biodiversity crisis in the world’s oceans in the journal Science. By comparing modern extinction risk data with information on ancient extinctions, Knope and his colleagues determined the potential for future human-driven mass extinction could rival the largest mass extinctions in the past, and that the current biodiversity crisis is unlike any the planet has ever experienced.

Recently, a collaborative study led by Knope and published Feb. 28, 2020, also in the journal Science, uncovers findings that challenge long-held assumptions in the field of evolution, positing that animal biodiversity in modern oceans is best explained by lower extinction rates in animal groups that are ecologically diverse, rather than by higher origination rates as previously predicted.

By Leah Sherwood.

A previously undocumented oyster species has been recognized for the first time in Hawai‘i by a team of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo in a collaborative project with community partners.

The work was done as part of a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience, commonly called a CURE project, by a genetics class with lab work (BIOL 376L) taught by Jolene Sutton, assistant professor of biology at UH Hilo. CURE projects are large-scale, where an entire class works together to tackle a single research question.

“We brought the oysters into the class and the students did everything from start to finish,” says Sutton, an evolutionary geneticist specializing in conservation biology. “They did the DNA extraction, amplified a gene that’s typically used for DNA barcoding, did the analysis, and then wrote a report on what they found.”

The project

Oyster species are difficult to identify based on morphology alone, but their identities can be resolved by applying genetic and genomic technologies. Until now, four extant species of true oyster have been documented in Hawai‘i. The genetic study by the UH Hilo students expands the known range of the western Pacific Ostrea equestris, a species previously documented in China, Japan, and New Zealand, by providing the first verification of its occurrence in Hawai‘i.

The discovery has been submitted to a journal for peer review and is currently available as a paper on the pre-print server biorxiv.org.

Sutton’s coauthors on the paper include the nine students in the genetics class: Keinan Agonias, Nicole Antonio, Brandi Bautista, Riley Cabarloc, Maata Fakasieiki, Noreen Aura Mae Gonong, Torey Ramangmou, Lavin Uehara, and Jade Wong.

Other coauthors are the course’s two teaching assistants, Jared Nishimoto and Jeremy Schrader, both graduate students from the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program; Maria Haws, professor of aquaculture and director of the UH Hilo Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center, along with colleagues Marni Rem-McGeachy, Hope Helg, Daniel Wilkie, and David Littrell; and Rhiannon Chandler, executive director of Waterkeepers Hawaiian Islands.

The project arose serendipitously when Haws approached Sutton with samples of oysters she had collected but could not identify. Sutton, who was already having her CURE students do DNA barcoding in the genetics lab class using pre-specified training samples, had been looking for a project that had more relevance to the community. “I wanted my students to do a project with a purpose.”

The previously undocumented oyster identified by the class as part of a large species complex known as Ostrea stentina/aupouria/equestris. “It’s a group of oysters that are closely related and very difficult to distinguish from one another,” says Sutton. “We took the analyses a little bit further and it turns out that the samples that we have in Hawai‘i are most closely related to the western Pacific branch of Ostrea equestris, which are associated with China, Japan, and New Zealand.”

The students’ findings may prove useful for the state’s aquaculture industry.

“Here in Hawai‘i we have a resurgence of aquaculture and traditional fishponds and using locally available species for aquaculture purposes, both for food and, in the case of oysters, for environmental remediation,” explains Sutton. “This task of identifying the different oysters in Hawai‘i offers some potential to diversify the markets. This could be something is marketable for food, since people do eat the Ostrea species. If this is a species that grows really well and is already here, maybe this a good option for aquaculture purposes.”

The value of a CURE classroom

Sutton says the CURE classroom format is extremely valuable for student learning and engagement.

“There are data showing that CUREs increase retention and student success,” she explains. “But we need more support for CUREs as they are a lot more effort and time given that it is real research. They require much more planning and flexibility than my other courses. The role of graduate student teaching assistants was critical to accomplishing this project the way we did and in the timeframe that we did it.”

The CURE format also made it possible for every undergraduate enrolled in the class to be published as a coauthor of a scientific paper. “It was really exciting for the students when we told them that we have this result that we think is worth publishing and we want you to be coauthors,” says Sutton.

Based on the results from spring 2019, Sutton secured additional seed funding to continue similar research for the spring 2020 semester. “We have a cohort of twelve students plus an undergraduate teaching assistant. They have been working on more oysters from more locations in Hawai‘i.”

Even with the COVID-19 interruption and the challenges associated with online lab classes, Sutton says she is prepared to teach the students remotely how to analyze the collected data using a combination of different free programs used in genetic analysis.

The work of the two graduate students was partially supported by the National Science Foundation. On the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center side, the work was partially supported by the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture and the UH Sea Grant Program.

Story by Leah Sherwood, a graduate student in the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program at UH Hilo. She received her bachelor of science in biology and bachelor of arts in English from Boise State University.

Twenty-five years ago, a UH Hilo biologist tagged 7,000 trees in a declining Hawai‘i Island rainforest. A recent survey of the site reveals conservationists’ efforts are paying off.

By Leah Sherwood.

Researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo waited 25 years for field results from a study investigating whether or not Hawai‘i Island’s higher-elevation tropical forests could rejuvenate after destructive cattle and pigs were fenced out. The recent discovery of new and thriving growth of keiki ʻōhiʻa and koa in the studied area is good news about the forests’ native trees and the threatened bird species for whom the trees provide habitat.

UH Hilo scientists Patrick J. Hart, Thomas Ibanez, Shea Uehana, and Joshua Pang-Ching‘s paper, “Forest regeneration following ungulate removal in a montane Hawaiian wet forest,” was published January in the journal Restoration Ecology. Hart is a professor and Ibanez a post-doctoral fellow, both from UH Hilo’s biology department. Uehana and Pang-Ching are recent alumni of UH Hilo’s graduate program in tropical conservation biology and environmental science.

 The study

Hawai‘i Island’s tropical forests evolved without large herbivores and were ill-prepared to withstand their arrival in the 18th century. Cattle were introduced to the island in 1793, and their numbers increased rapidly, with feral cattle roaming the island freely. By 1960, 65 percent of the island was grazing land, most of which was formerly forest, and the cattle also were allowed to graze the remaining forested areas. Following the introduction of cattle, feral pigs were introduced and also caused extensive damage to forests through their rooting behavior and eating of seedlings and saplings.

In 1985, Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve approximately 13,000 hectares of higher-elevation wet forest that had been impacted by cattle and pigs. The conservationists fenced off large tracts of the preserve and by 1992 had removed all remaining cattle, most of which had become feral. Subsequently, thousands of feral pigs were removed, mainly through hunting.

In the mid-1990s, after the cattle were removed, Hart, who was then a doctoral student studying the refuge as a bird habitat, measured and tagged 7,000 trees in some of the fenced-off areas. For the 2020 paper, Hart and his colleagues returned to the same areas he had studied 25 years earlier.

The goal of the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge project was to allow the forest to passively regenerate, mainly to improve habitat for a number of threatened and endangered native Hawaiian forest bird species, but also to increase native plant diversity and native Hawaiian forest cover.

The new paper by Hart and his colleagues demonstrates that the refuge has been largely successful. “We were able to demonstrate that passive restoration can work in these upper elevation areas,” says Hart. “It’s a positive story because the bird habitat is regenerating.”

“When we returned to those areas that I had studied 25 years ago, we found 4,000 new recruits [young trees] five cm in diameter in those same plots,” says Hart. “Going up there 25 years ago you would see mostly medium to large trees with very little understory, but now you see lots of keiki.”

Hart was particularly pleased by the fast recovery of the native koa trees (Acacia koa). “The fencing allowed this new cohort of koa trees to come up just in time,” he says. “The koa trees get big, they grow fast, and can live for 200 years, so they’re very important for the bird species up there.”

Hart says one lesson from the team’s research is that in certain cases, passive conservation management can be effective. “Often in Hawai‘i when the non-native plants come in and outcompete the native species, it requires active management and active weeding,” says Hart. “In this case, the refuge is basically doing passive management, although some maintenance of the fencing is required.”

Hart notes that the reason the restoration was successful without active management may be because the forest had not yet been completely converted into grassland, and there was still relatively intact forest left nearby, which helped the native trees to come back on their own. “Once the natives make a canopy they can shade out the invasives,” he notes.

Story by Leah Sherwood, a graduate student in the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program at UH Hilo. She received her bachelor of science in biology and bachelor of arts in English from Boise State University.