El Niño events have long been perceived as a driver for low rainfall in the winter and spring in Hawaiʻi, creating a six-month wet-season drought
After years of development and testing, researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have successfully demonstrated that a fleet of autonomous robots can track and study a moving microbial community in an open-ocean eddy
Resource managers and conservationists have been offered an innovative, new approach to selecting coral species for reef restoration
Scalloped hammerhead sharks hold their breath to keep their bodies warm during deep dives into cold water where they hunt prey such as deep sea squids.
The high seas have been colonized by a surprising number of coastal marine invertebrate species, which can now survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to the floating community composition.
Over the past 200 years, the ocean and atmosphere have been accumulating massive amounts of carbon dioxide as factories, automobiles, airplanes and more churn out the powerful greenhouse gas.
In January 2022, the largest underwater volcanic eruption of this century led to a dramatic phytoplankton bloom north of the island of Tongatapu, in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Using NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, a team of scientists including several from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, discovered that Jezero Crater is largely made up of igneous (formed by volcanic magma) rock, rather than sedimentary rock; and that water has altered minerals in the crater floor rock. This discovery will help determine when water existed on Mars, and ultimately, whether the red planet was ever habitable to microbial life.
An innovative scientific instrument developed by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers is expected to be a game changer in the search for life—existing or extinct—on Earth and other planets.
Asteroid Bennu’s boulder-covered surface gives it protection against small meteoroid impacts, according to observations of craters by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
Most bottom-dwelling marine invertebrate animals, such as sponges, corals, worms and oysters, produce tiny larvae that swim in the ocean prior to attaching to the seafloor and transforming into juveniles.
A record-setting rainstorm over Kauaʻi in April 2018 resulted in severe flash flooding and estimated damage of nearly $180 million
Bacteria alter their swimming patterns when they get into tight spaces—hurrying to escape from confinement, according to a published study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Vibrio vulnificus, a “flesh-eating” bacterium that lives naturally in the water of the Ala Wai Canal in Waikīkī is likely to increase substantially in coming decades, but infections are rare.
Climate change-induced ocean warming has reshaped reef ecosystems as coral bleaching events continue to lead to mass coral die-offs globally
As carbon dioxide emissions have increased in the atmosphere, the ocean has absorbed a greater amount of carbon according to a publication co-authored by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa oceanography Professor Christopher Sabine and selected as a 2021 Outstanding Scientific Paper by NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
In the Ala Wai Canal in Waikīkī, the abundance of Vibrio vulnificus, an infectious bacterium, is strongly influenced by the amount of rainfall in the surrounding areas, according to a published study by oceanographers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU).
Using unoccupied aerial system (UAS), or drone photography, researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) are now able to determine the age-structure of free-ranging dolphin groups.
Native marine macroalgae, also known as limu (seaweed), thrive in environments created by natural groundwater seeps, specifically benefiting from the combined effects of enhanced nutrients despite lowered salinity levels, according to a review published by a team of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers.
Mass biodiversity extinction events caused by extreme natural phenomena have marked the history of life on Earth five times.