| The KPNHA supports research that is directly associated with the
natural history and cultural history of Kilauea Point National Wildlife
Refuge, Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge and Huleia National Wildlife
Refuge on Kauai. Both graduate students and scientists are encouraged
to develop proposals. To apply for funds, first submit a brief pre-proposal
describing the project and the estimated cost to any member of the
KPNHA Board of Directors, or send it to the Business Manager, KPNHA,
P. O. Box 1130, Kilauea HI 96754. The following projects have been
funded to date: |
Landscape-level Paleoecological Reconstruction for
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Kaua`i ($5,000)
Dr. David A. Burney, Associate Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Fordham University
Dr. Burney and a multidisciplinary team of paleoecologists, paleontologists,
and archaeologists have been working on the island for the last
four years to reconstruct the environmental history of prehistoric
Kaua`i from the fossil record. Using evidence from fossil pollen,
bones of extinct birds, snail shells, and other ancient traces
they have been addressing questions concerning vegetation change,
animal extinctions, and the roles of the human inhabitants in
these changes. With support from the National Science Foundation,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Smithsonian
Institution,
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| and Kaua`i Community College, they have studied the
spectacular fossil site in the caves at Maha`ulepu on the south
coast and begun work on many others. Twelve of these sites have
yielded radiocarbon-dated stratigraphies. |
| In the interest of gaining useful information for
the restoration efforts planned for the Kaua`i National Wildlife
Refuges, KPNHA has contributed funds to this project to help with
radiocarbon dating and other analyses of sites in or near the refuges.
Near Kilauea Point, the team obtained sediment cores, rich with
fossil pollen and other evidence of the original |
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Fossil Pritchardia Pollen
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vvegetation, from a bog on the Silver
Falls Ranch that date back 9,000 years. At Crater Hill, a core was
obtained, but preservation was poor due to the dry condition of
the sediments at this exposed site. A core from Limahuli reaches
back nearly 10,000 years, providing information relevant to reconstructing
the original vegetation of Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge and
Limahuli Gardens. Cores from Alekoko |
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Fishpond and farther up the Huleia Valley provide a record of
vegetation in this area back 3500 years. Other sites on the island
provide insight concerning the original biota back to as much
as 23,000 years, with good prospects for even longer records in
future work. One surprising finding from this research is that
many plants restricted today to high wet areas such as Kokee State
Park were once found all the way down to sea level, raising the
possibility that some rare plants could be restored to sites far
outside their present very limited range.
email - burney@fordham.edu
Web Address - www.fordham.edu/calder_center/burney/david_burney.html
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The Albatross Project ($25,000)
Dr. David Anderson, Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology
Wake Forest University
Supported by a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation,
Dr. Anderson has been studying the flight patterns of Laysan and
black-footed albatrosses nesting at Kilauea Point and Tern Island
National Wildlife Refuges. The seabirds nest in these refuges
and travel out into the ocean to find food for their chicks. The
study seeks to find ways to reduce worldwide albatross declines
of up to 10 per cent a year and answer evolutionary questions
raised by the seabird's long sojourns at sea.
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| Dr. Anderson has tracked birds from both locations through the
use of small radio transmitters taped between their wings. Orbiting
Argos System satellites pick up the |
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signals and relay them to a processing
station in France before the coordinates are sent by e-mail to Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Here Dr. Anderson and Patty
Fernandez, a graduate student in biology, distribute the information
by e-mail to school classes participating in The Albatross Project
by tracking "their" albatross. Thousands of school children
in Hawaii and across the |
| world follow the birds, along with Anderson and his research team,
through the project's e-mail bulletin board and website. |
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The researchers found that the albatross make short trips for
food until their chicks are about a month old, when they begin
making long trips that take them away from the islands for weeks
at a time. A Laysan albatross tracked in the project flew more
than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find
food for its chick in just 90 days, flights equivalent to circling
the globe. Other birds made repeated trips from Tern Is. out as
far north as the Aleutian Islands and black-footed albatrosses
made long repeated trips from Tern Is. to San Francisco Bay and
back. These observations shed light on how the availability of
food affects the seabirds' reproduction and how their populations
can be protected from declines attributed to longline fishing
fleets plying Pacific waters for tuna and other fish.
e-mail - da@wfu.edu
Web Address - http://www.wfu.edu/albatross/problem.htm
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