HNFAS Faculty


FACULTY INFORMATION
Banna, Jinan
Professor in Human Nutrition  


see more...

Email:  jcbanna@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7857
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Nutrition Education, Community Nutrition
Butel, Jean (Jeannie)
ASST SPEC OF COMM NUTRN  


see more...

Email:  jbutel@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7069
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Cacpal, Kristina
Junior Extension Agent  


see more...

Email:  kcacpal@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 567-6929
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm to School
Dela Cruz, Rica Ann
DATA MANAGER  


see more...

Email:  ricadc@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 649-0847
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Esquivel, Monica
Associate Professor and Dietetics Program Director  


see more...

Email:  monicake@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, community based participatory nutrition, child health promotion, food and nutrition security
Fukumoto, Glen K
Emeritus  


see more...

Email:  gfukumot@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Pasture, Livestock & Waste Management
Hackney, Lara
Instructor  


see more...

Email:  laraj27@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3837
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

He, Yanghua
Assistant Professor of Genomics and Epigenomics  


see more...

Email:  yanghua.he@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7090
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

1. Benchwork: Sequencing platforms: Illumina HiSeq; Mi-seq; 10*Genomics; Nanopore sequencing. Library constructions for sequencing: DNA-seq; RNA-seq; ChIP-seq and CUT&RUN; MBD-seq; MeDIP-seq; WGBS; RRBS; Bisulfite cloning sequencing; pyrosequencing; HiC; PLAC-seq; ATAC-seq. CRISPR-based technologies (Genome-editing and Epigenome-editing). sgRNA Library Screening. 2. Data analysis: Bioinformatics in Genetic and Epigenetic data analysis; Galaxy platform; Linux Operating System; Computational languages: Perl, Python, R, Matlab, SAS, C++
Ho, Kacie
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  kacieho@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8286
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Jha, Rajesh
Professor and Graduate Chair of Animal Sciences  


see more...

Email:  rjha@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4122
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Monogastric Animal Nutrition, Gut Health and Physiology, Feed and Feed Additive Evaluation
Jun, Soojin
Professor  


see more...

Email:  soojin@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8283
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Engineering, Food Processing, Food preservation, Biosensing
Kim, Yong-Soo
Researcher  


see more...

Email:  ykim@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8335
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Growth physiology; muscle biology ; meat science: Cattle-ProductionSwine-Production-all aspectsCattle-PostharvestSwine-Postharvest
Lee, Chin Nyean
Emeritus  


see more...

Email:  chinl@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4882
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology Dairy Science: Cattle-Dairy -Pasture ManagementForage Crops in gen.-MarketingCrops in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentAnimals in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentPasture in gen.-Management
Lee, Cheng Sheng
Researcher and Exec Dir Ctr for Trop & Subtrop Ag  


see more...

Email:  chenglee@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3385
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproduction control in marine finfish and marine shrimp; Early life history of fish and shrimp; Ecology of live feed organisms; and Aquaculture Management in general.
Lee, Mi-Jeong
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  leemj7@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-9565
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Li, Yong
Professor  


see more...

Email:  liyong@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6408
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Microbiology, Food Safety
Mishra, Birendra
Associate Professor  


see more...

Email:  bmishra@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7021
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology of Domestic Animals and Poultry, Environmental stress on reproduction, Transcriptional regulation of egg formation in the laying hens, nutritional programming to increase the reproductive efficiencies.
Morgan Bernal, Lydi
Jr Extn Agent - Oahu Farm to School  


see more...

Email:  lydi@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7095
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm-to-School, school gardens, teacher professional development, coalition building
Nakamoto, Stuart T
Extension Economist/Spec  


see more...

Email:  snakamo@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8125
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Agribusiness marketing/adding value (marketing of Specialty crops and products), agribusiness management, agribusiness economics, risk management, tea, blueberries
Novotny, Rachel
Professor  


see more...

Email:  novotny@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3848
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Community and global nutrition; Maternal and child nutrition; Public health nutrition; Field assessment of nutrition status
Oshiro, Melelani
Assistant Extension Agent  


see more...

Email:  mabran@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Small ruminant support and livestock
Reichhardt, Caleb Case
Assistant Professor of Livestock Animal Production  


see more...

Email:  CCReichh@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Beef cattle management and muscle biology.
Seale, Andre P.
Researcher  


see more...

Email:  seale@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8961
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Comparative endocrinology, fish physiology, cell and molecular biology, signal transduction, aquaculture.
Thorne, Mark
Specialist  


see more...

Email:  thornem@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 887-7625
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Grazing management and beef cattle support
Yang, Jinzeng
Professor & Chair  


see more...

Email:  jinzeng@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6073
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Molecular biology, animal biotechnology, transgenic animals, genetics, gene regulation, muscle biology, lactation physiology, mammary gland biology
20 June 2024

Resilience and Reproduction

HNFAS prof aims to boost sustainability in fishponds

Resilience and Reproduction

In ancient Hawaiʻi, fishponds were remarkably successful in ensuring a steady supply of food. In modern times, these seafood “farms” can greatly relieve pressure on wild stocks and supplement market demands – especially local species that are increasingly important economically. 

Yet, efforts to revitalize this traditional aquaculture have encountered challenges. For example, fish introduced into the fishponds to enhance stocks often have low resilience. And for some species of high economic interest, there’s also a lack of reliable reproduction techniques.

But with biennial Sea Grant awards in hand, two new aquaculture track projects led by Andre Seale of the Dept. of Human Nutrition Food and Animal Sciences are addressing these problems. His twin studies employ two local species of interest for sustainable aquaculture development: the sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens) and ʻamaʻama, or striped mullet (Mugil cephalus)

The grants have also enabled Andre to add graduate assistants Tyler Goodearly and Reilly Merlo, who are enrolled in the Nutritional Sciences PhD program, as co-investigators. 

Sea cucumbers

To improve the productivity of these echinoderms, Andre and Tyler will partner with local producers, fishpond managers, and collaborators to devise a species-specific approach for inducing oocyte maturation and spawning behavior while assessing the viability of larvae. The researchers hope the knowledge gained will provide a framework for overcoming the reproductive dysfunction of Stichopus horrens and reliably producing sea cucumbers in Hawai‘i. Ultimately, it could spearhead national sea cucumber production efforts and lead to practices that will optimize growth in sustainable aquaculture systems, including Hawaiian fishponds.

“This sea cucumber is a good candidate for aquaculture, given its fast reproductive life cycle, ecosystem services rendered as sediment feeders and high value in Asian markets” Andre says. 

Striped mullet

Natural recruitment of the ʻamaʻama, or juvenile striped mullet, to fishponds has become unreliable. What’s more, the introduction of hatchery-raised fry directly into the fishponds has been largely unsuccessful.

In order to better understand how to improve rearing practices and stock enhancement of this species, this project aims to establish strategies to adjust the fingerling hatchery environment in order to precondition the ʻamaʻama, improve their environmental resillience, and optimize their survival and growth once introduced to a Hawaiian fishpond setting.

Andre and Reilly will focus on the effects of variable salinity and temperature regimes on physiological markers of growth, stress, and salt-and-water regulation in the fish. This will help establish which environmental conditions can best prepare the juvenile mullet for survival in the natural fishpond setting.

“In addition to informing management strategies for rearing the ʻamaʻama in fishponds, the results should also provide further insight into how these native fish might adapt to future changes in climatic conditions,” Andre says.

Read: “Development of gonadal maturation and spawning strategies in Hawaiian sea cucumbers.”

Read: “The development of environmental acclimation-based rearing strategies to optimize survival and growth in amaʻama or striped mullet, Mugil cephalus

Print



HNFAS Department

1955 East West Road
AgSci 216

Honolulu, HI 96822

phone: 808-956-7095

fax: 808-956-4024


hnfas@hawaii.edu

 

Quick Links
 WebMail
 Laulima
 My UH
 Academic Calendar

UH Manoa

Video-Conferencing
  Halawai