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HPU undergraduates at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. Left to right: Jo Boucher, Margaux Solari, Naomi Zeller, Vegas Apte.
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HPU undergraduate Maddie Eife and incoming graduate student Lanya Konyu cutting bulrush for biomass measurements at James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.
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Kala McDonald measuring water quality parameters at Waialeʻe using an instrument called a YSI.
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Lanya Konyu triumphantly finding a lost dissolved oxygen sensor at Waiale'e.
HPU has received a $502,819 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Building Research Capacity of New Faculty in Biology (BRC-BIO) program to fund coastal wetland research at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge while creating paid, career-launching opportunities for HPU undergraduate and graduate students. This marks the first BRC-BIO grant ever received in Hawai‘i, expanding HPU’s capacity to conduct nationally funded environmental research at the state’s largest private university.
Carmella Vizza retrieving a minnow trap in the water hyacinth during monthly fish surveys at Waiale'e.
The three-year grant will fund two Master of Science in Marine Science (MSMS) students, covering tuition and providing stipends for 2.5 years. It will also support stipends for undergraduate researchers during the academic year and a dedicated 10-week summer research position annually. HPU’s environmental science lab courses will integrate project fieldwork and data collection, enabling dozens of students to participate in authentic, community-connected research over the life of the grant.
“This NSF grant is exciting because it builds opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students while connecting our research to Hawai‘i’s communities,” said HPU Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Carmella Vizza, Ph.D., who secured the grant and will lead the research. “It’s invaluable for our students to work on projects that are relevant to them and matter to our communities. Funding like this makes it possible for students to focus on high-quality research instead of working multiple jobs. This is an investment in their success, in the diversity of the STEM pipeline, and in the future of conservation science in Hawai‘i.”
The grand scope of the HPU grant is to investigate how simulated sea-level rise affects methane emissions in coastal wetlands. Wetlands contribute between 50% and 80% of natural methane emissions globally, and while brackish wetlands typically release less methane than freshwater systems, recent studies suggest the relationship is more nuanced, influenced by plant communities, salinity levels, and microbial competition.
“We will research how adding saltwater, much like what sea-level rise would do, changes the way these wetlands breathe,” said Vizza. “Will it slow down the microbes that produce methane? Could there be a sweet spot in salinity where emissions spike before falling again? And how will the plants themselves respond, especially when invasive species like California bulrush start to disappear? These are the kinds of questions that can connect climate science to real solutions for conservation.”
HPU graduate students Lanya Konyu and Kala McDonald will help lead core aspects of the grant research — from analyzing water chemistry to studying microbial communities — while mentoring undergraduate team members. Both received their BS from HPU and have been working with Vizza for multiple years. Konyu previously managed Vizza’s environmental science lab and investigated the effects of Genki balls on water quality during a 2-year study in Kawainui. McDonald’s undergraduate research focused on environmental contaminants in fishponds and their implications for food safety and food sovereignty.
HPU undergraduate students will gain hands-on research experience through both paid and course-embedded projects. Vizza has partnered with the community organizations Kauluakalana and the North Shore Community Land Trust to co-develop research questions centered on traditional Hawaiian fishpond restoration, water quality, native algae (limu) nutrient needs, and fish populations.
Vizza will build on her doctoral research in Alaska’s Copper River Delta, where she compared methane production in freshwater and brackish wetlands and examined how microbial communities shifted under different salinity conditions. This new HPU project will take place in a faster-changing tropical ecosystem, allowing Vizza to study the same processes at the ecosystem scale and over longer time periods with direct conservation applications.
The HPU team will work over a two-year period at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where saltwater is already being introduced to control the spread of invasive bulrush and restore endangered Hawaiian waterbird habitats. By tracking water chemistry, plant biomass, microbial communities, and methane dynamics across ponds with different salinity levels, HPU’s novel research could reveal how wetland ecosystems shift under long-term saltwater influence.
To help with the complex analysis, HPU will purchase a SEAL AQ400 nutrient analyzer for their Downtown Science Laboratories on Fort Street Mall, automating nutrient analysis and significantly speeding up results for both this project and future environmental research.
“The knowledge we learn could inform future methane budgets in coastal wetlands and whether saltwater introduction is a viable way to reduce invasive plants for the creation of waterbird habitat,” said Vizza. “And more importantly, it will prepare our students, from their first field day to graduation, to be scientists and conservation leaders rooted in community.”
To learn more about the exciting world of the HPU Department of Natural Science, click here.
