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Leah Bremer

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Filling the Knowledge Gaps: Extreme Weather Driven Changes in Streamflow Patterns and their Impacts on Fish in Hawaiian Streams
Freshwater is a critical driver for island ecosystems and essential part of the water cycle in tropical islands, which is threaten by climate change. Changes in streamflow patterns may impact streams, estuarine, and coastal habitats. In Hawai‘i, these habitats support five native stream fish species. To examine how changes in streamflow have impacted habitat quality for these native aquatic species, an ongoing project has been examining statewide long-term stream records. This study will examine historical extreme weather patterns, including flood and drought, to describe the characteristics and flow patterns of stream habitats in Hawaiʻi. This information will then be associated with observed fish populations...
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Valuing Climate Change Impacts on Coral Reef Ecosystem Services
Coral reefs provide numerous ecosystem goods and services critical to human well-being (e.g., protection from storms and floods, food, income, recreation, and cultural practices), but they are threatened by growing human pressures and climate change. Resource managers must make complex decisions when developing adaptation plans that are cost-effective and maintain coral reef functions while still allowing for human use and development. Through this project, scientists developed a decision-support tool for managers to (1) identify the areas that provide the most critical coral reef services (i.e., supply the most value to humans) as well as the areas of reef most threatened, and (2) compare the effects of reef management...
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Linking Models to Outcomes – How do Hawaiʻi Stakeholders Use and Contribute to Land-to-Sea Ecosystem Service Analyses
Pacific Island societies value, depend on, and actively manage terrestrial and marine ecosystems for the multiple benefits they provide, including those associated with plant and animal abundance, resilience to natural disasters, and the flow of water, soil, and nutrients. New ecosystem service models developed for Pacific Island landscapes now integrate land-to-sea connections, allowing us to assess how land-based management actions and threats (e.g. changes to climate and land cover) affect ecosystem benefits, from ridge to reef. Affecting actual change on the ground, however, depends on how scientific information is accessed and used by managers and other decision makers who have the capacity to influence ecosystem...
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