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For the second time in three years, CTAHR students in the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences won 1st prize in Cobb Bowl Jeopardy at the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists, held August 4-9 in Park City, UT. Competing as “Aloha Nema,” our super-capable PEPS students
Congrats to Kyhl Austin, grad student in the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, who took home Best Student Talk (and a big cash prize!) in the graduate student competition at the North American Meeting of the Lepidopterist’s Society, held at Cornell U. last month.
Congrats times three to Mason Russo, Jordie Ho, and Benjamin Wiseman – all CTAHR PhD students and all recipients of 2024 Scholar Awards from the ARCS Foundation, Honolulu Chapter. Mason wins the Maybelle F. Roth Award in Conservation Biology and the Jane and Dan Katayama ARCS Scholar of the Year Award.
Papaya is an economically significant crop in Hawaiʻi and other tropical and subtropical locales. However, various diseases, drought, and heat stress threaten crop productivity. To improve resistance to these threats, an efficient gene-editing system was developed by graduate student, Marc Elias in the laboratory of David Christopher
See! Crazy carnivorous plants, courtesy of the Lyon Arboretum/UH Botany.
See! Dizzying diversity of native Hawaiian flies, courtesy of the UH Center for Conservation Research & Training.
See! Bewildering mantis shrimps, courtesy of the Porter Vison Lab.
“Christmas trees are actually natural habitats for lots of creatures, especially during the Fall months. That dense foliage is perfect for sleeping through the winter. So a lot of insects, slugs, snails, salamandars, even snakes, snuggle up into these trees. And when the trees are cut, wrapped, and sent here to Hawaiʻi, with AC to keep them comfortable, those pests arrive in pretty good condition.”
The entries for the 2023 PEPS Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest get better every year – and the two-point difference between 1st and 2nd place, and 1-5 point differences between 3rd through 6th places – speak volumes! Thank you to all those who took time out of your busy schedules to submit these creative masterpieces, and to those who came to enjoy their efforts and vote!
Removing invasive plants and restoring native ones is key to lowering the risk of wildfire in Hawaii, but what might get left out of the conversation is the role of feral goats. Left to their own devices, these voracious animals eat native plants and strip bark from native trees, leave “large swaths of land open for the spread of invasive fire-adapted species, creating a cycle of ever-increasing fires and opportunities for invasive species.”
If you’ve ever wondered why some buildings in Hawaiʻi are eaten alive by termites, while others seem to stand the test of time just fine, it might be due to whether the foundation is wrapped in a Basaltic Termite Barrier. The patented, non-chemical, subterranean, stainless-steel screen that is still in use today was invented by CTAHR entomologist Minoru Tamashiro.
Presenting his research on hala scale was Mason Russo’s initial, official reason for attending the 2023 Society of Island Biology annual meeting in Lipari, Italy. But the overall experience – being surrounded by like-minded scientists from exotic locales across the globe – was also enlightening and eye-opening for this PhD candidate in the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences.
If you require information in an alternative format, please contact us at: PEPS-ADA@ctahr.hawaii.edu
