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Darren Lerner

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Regional Collaborations
PI-CASC regularly interacts with a diverse and extensive network of stakeholder organizations at federal, territory, state, county, and local levels across the Pacific Region, supporting communication and iterative problem solving between researchers, managers, and decision makers. In addition to these partnerships, PI-CASC has two important ongoing collaborative initiatives. Pacific Islands-Alaska CASC collaboration The PI-AK CASC collaboration is aimed at bringing together scientist and resource managers from the Pacific and Alaska regions to share insights on related climate adaptation challenges in Ridge-to-Reef (R2R) and Icefield-to-Ocean (I2O) ecosystems. Similarities in landscapes and communities in these...
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Science Co-Production
Pacific Islands CASC engages in a variety of science co-production activities across the region with the goal of developing usable science with resource managers to help them better integrate adaptation strategies for fish, wildlife, water, land, and people into their decision making and planning. Our flagship program for knowledge co-production is the Manager Climate Corps. MCC was developed at the PI-CASC consortium member institution, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, to support and build connections between natural and cultural resource managers, researchers, and graduate students on Hawaiʻi Island through in-person networking opportunities and to promote the benefits of collaborative, stakeholder-driven research...
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Connecting Ecosystems from Mountains to the Sea in a Changing Climate
Freshwater is a critical driver for island ecosystems. In Hawaiʻi, though rainfall intensity has increased, total rainfall has been on the decline for the last two decades and, as a result, streamflow has also been reduced. The changes in dynamic patterns of streamflow could result in impacts to river, estuarine, and coastal habitats. In turn, these changes also affect the nine native Hawaiian aquatic species found in these habitats at different stages of their amphidromous life cycle (in which they migrate from fresh to salt water or vice versa). To examine how changes in streamflow regime have impacted habitat quality for native migratory aquatic species, an ongoing project has been examining statewide long-term...
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Sea-Level Rise Viewer for American Samoa: A Co-Developed Visualization and Planning Tool
American Samoa is vulnerable to sea-level rise in part due to the steep terrain of its islands. This terrain requires the majority of the islands’ villages and infrastructure to be located along thin strips of coastal land. The situation is worsened by the recently recognized rapid sinking of the islands, which was triggered by the 2009 Samoa earthquake and is predicted to last for decades. This subsidence is estimated to lead to roughly twice as much sea-level rise by 2060 as what is already predicted from climate change alone. As a result, the timeline of coastal impacts in American Samoa will be decades ahead of similar island communities in the Pacific. Despite this urgency, decision-makers in the region lack...
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Future of Fire in the Pacific Islands: Towards a National Synthesis for Wildland Fire Under a Changing Climate
Wildfire is a significant yet underappreciated issue on Pacific Islands that threatens ecosystems from ridge-tops to reefs, including native species, waters, human communities, and natural and cultural resources. In the Hawaiian archipelago, the percentage of land burned annually is equal or greater than that burned across the western United States, with most fires occurring in drier nonnative grasslands and shrublands, which make up 25% of Hawaiʻi’s total land area. As island communities face increased wildfire risk due to climate change and other factors, such as continued plant invasions, collaborative bio-cultural stewardship approaches to adaptation will be critical to wildfire management. Fire causes and effects...
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