Department of Global Environmental Science

Marine Science Building 205E, 205F
1000 Pope Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-2913
Fax: (808) 956-9225
Email: ges@soest.hawaii.edu
Web: soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/ges/

Faculty

M. Guidry, PhD (Undergraduate Chair)—biogeochemical modeling, mineral precipitation/dissolution kinetics, K-12/university curriculum development assessment, geoscience education
R. Alegado, PhD—marine microbial ecology, influence of bacteria on animal evolution, Hawaiian fishponds
H. Annamalai, PhD—diagnostic and modeling aspects of the Asian Summer Monsoon system, prediction and predictability of the Asian Summer Monsoon system, dynamical and physical link between Monsoon-ENSO
D. Beilman, PhD—long-term terrestrial ecology, paleoscience approaches to global change science, carbon cycling
S. M. Bushinsky, PhD—biogeochemical cycles, interpretation of data from autonomous vehicles to understand the biological carbon cycle, air-sea gas exchange, Southern Ocean processes controlling air-sea oxygen and carbon fluxes and nutrient export
S. Businger, PhD—evolution and structure of destructive atmospheric storms including: frontal cyclones, hurricanes, and severe thunderstorm
B. C. Bruno, PhD—planetary geosciences, geoscience education
G. S. Carter, PhD—physical oceanography, ocean mixing, tides, internal waves, underwater ocean gliders
Q. Chen—environmental changes and use of multiple tools to address these issues
M. J. Cooney, PhD—high rate anaerobic digestion, bio-oil extraction from biomass, and the analytical characterization of chemical microenvironments surrounding immobilized enzymes
J. L. Deenik, PhD—soil fertility and soil quality, nitrogen and carbon cycling in agroecosystems, traditional agroecosystems, biochar and sustainable agriculture
E. F. DeLong, PhD—application of contemporary genomic technologies to understand the ecology, evolution and biochemistry of complete microbial assemblages
J. C. Drazen, PhD—physiological ecology of marine fishes, energetics, deep-sea biology, adaptations of fishes to the deep-sea
K. Edwards—phytoplankton ecology, community ecology, ecological theory and statistics, benthic communities
M. Edwards, PhD—marine geology and geophysics, remote sensing of the seafloor, Mid-Ocean Ridges, Artic Basin
A. El-Kadi, PhD—hydrogeology, modeling groundwater systems
R. C. Ertekin, PhD—hydrodynamics, computational methods, offshore and coastal engineering, oil-spill spreading, fishpond circulation, ocean renewable energy
P. J. Flament, PhD—dynamics of surface ocean layer, mesoscale structures, remote sensing
C. H. Fletcher, PhD—quaternary and coastal marine geology, sea-level history, coastal sedimentary processes
O. Francis—storm-generated ocean waves, meteorological and ocean processes on coastal infrastructure, water, and wastewater systems affected by climate change and water shortage
K. Frank—identifying environmental drivers of microbial dynamics and to characterize the impact of the microorganisms on biogeochemical cycling in mineral-hosted ecosystems from mountain ridge to mid-ocean ridges
E. Gaidos, PhD—molecular evolution; microbiology of extreme environments; biosphere-climate feedbacks; critical intervals in Earth history; exobiology; biological networks
T. W. Giambelluca, PhD—interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface, including influences of land use and land cover change on climate and surface hydrology and effects of global climate change on hydrologic processes and terrestrial ecology
B. T. Glazer, PhD—biogeochemical processes in marine environments; use of molecular methods to characterize and understand synergy of geomicrobiology
E. Goetze, PhD—marine zooplankton ecology; dispersal and gene flow in marine plankton populations; evolution, behavioral ecology and systematics of marine calanoid copepods
E. G. Grau, PhD—environmental physiology and comparative endocrinology of fish
N. Hawco, PhD—impacts of micronutrient scarcity on phytoplankton growth and the carbon cycle, sources, sinks, and transformations of iron, cobalt and other metals in the ocean, elemental and isotopic tracers of environmental change
F. Henderikx-Freitas, PhD—optical and biogeochemical analysis of oceanic materials, ocean-atmospheric carbon dynamics from single cell to bulk volume perspectives across various time and space scales
D. T. Ho, PhD—air-water gas exchange, tracer oceanography, carbon cycle, and environmental geochemistry
S. Howell, PhD—environmental aerosol research, aerosol chemistry
A. Jani—ecology of infectious diseases
C. Karamperidou—ENSO dynamics and predictability, ENSO in past climate, response of mid-latitude atmospheric circulation to climate change and variability.
D. Karl—microbiological oceanography, oceanic productivity, biogeochemical fluxes
A. Kealoha, PhD—global ocean acidification, carbonate chemistry and biogeochemical processes, particularly in coral reef ecosystems
M. Kirs—environmental microbiology, Microbial source tracking, recreational water quality, quantitative PCR
D. E. Konan, PhD—international trade, microeconomics, computational economics
D. Luther—tides, internal waves, abyssal mixing, energy flow, wave interaction at the coast, interactive ocean observation
S. J. Martel, PhD—engineering and structural geology
M. A. McManus, PhD—descriptive physical oceanography, coupled physical-biological numerical models; development of ocean observing systems
M. Merlin, PhD—biogeography, natural history of the Pacific
A. Misra—material science, remote sensing, remote Raman, micro Raman, High Tc_Superconductor, stress strain sensors
T. Miura, PhD—remote sensing of terrestrial vegetation, GIS
G. F. Moore, PhD—marine geophysics, structural geology
P. Mouginis-Mark, PhD—volcanology from space, remote sensing of natural hazards
C. E. Nelson, PhD—structure and function of natural bacterial communities in aquatic habitats such as coral reefs lakes, streams, and open ocean
A. Nugent—mountain meteorology and cloudy physics, orographic convection and precipitation, shallow cloud dynamics, cloud microphysics
B. N. Popp, PhD—isotope biogeochemistry, organic geochemistry
J. N. Porter, PhD—atmospheric science, use of satellites to study aerosol and cloud forcing, ship measurements of aerosol and cloud optical properties
J. Potemra, PhD—general ocean circulation and its relationship to climate; oceanic processes in the western equatorial Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean and their connection
B. S. Powell, PhD—numerical modeling, variational data assimilation, ocean predictability, ocean circulation, and ecosystem dynamics
B. Qiu—large-scale ocean circulation, ocean atmosphere interaction, satellite observations, and numerical modeling of ocean circulation
M. S. Rappe, PhD—ecology of marine microorganisms; genomics; coral-associated microorganisms; ecology of microorganisms in the deep subsurface
G. Ravizza, PhD—paleoceanography and environmental chemistry; geologic history of chemical weathering; geochemistry of recent and ancient metalliferous sediments; anthropogenic influences on the geochemical cycles of the platinum group elements; chemical signatures of extraterrestrial matter in marine sediments; biogeochemistry of molybdenum in the marine environment
J. Roumasset, PhD—environmental economics and sustainable growth
K. Rubin, PhD—isotope geochemistry, chronology
K. Ruttenberg, PhD—biogeochemistry of phosphorus and phosphorus cycling in the ocean, rivers, and lakes; nutrient limitation of aquatic primary productivity; effects of redox chemistry on nutrient cycling; early diagenesis in marine sediments with focus on authigenic mineral formation and organic matter mineralization
C. L. Sabine, PhD—global carbon cycle, ocean inorganic carbon, ocean acidification, carbonate biogeochemistry, air-sea gas exchange, multitracer relationships, sensor and ocean platform development
N. Schneider, PhD—decadal climate variability, tropical air-sea interaction, coupled modeling
H. Seo, PhD—air-sea-wave interactions, processes controlling airsea fluxes of momentum, heat, and moisture, regional coupled modeling, climate variability and change
S. K. Sharma, PhD—atmospheric instrumentation and remote sensing; Lidar, Raman, and infrared spectrometry and fiber-optic environmental sensors
N. Silbiger, PhD—marine ecology, applied biogeochemistry, ocean acidification, coastal processes, and submarine groundwater discharge
C. R. Smith, PhD—benthic and ecology, deep-sea biology, sediment geochemistry, climate-change effects on Antarctic ecosystems, marine conservation
G. F. Steward, PhD—aquatic microbial ecology, molecular ecology and diversity of viruses and bacteria
M. F. Stuecker, PhD—internal climate variability and forced changes in the past, present, and future; El Niño-Southern Oscillation dynamics; decadal variability, climate connections between the tropics and poles and between different ocean basins
J. Suca, PhD—fishery-relevant species distribution and recruitment; modeling with statistical and machine learning; Hawaiʻi fisheries, including pelagic longline and reef-associated taxa
R. Toonen—dispersal and recruitment of invertebrate larvae, population genetics, evolution and ecology of marine invertebrates
G. Torri, PhD—island hydrometeorology, severe weather, stable water isotopes, atmospheric convection, tropical meteorology
B. Wang, PhD—atmospheric and climate dynamics
A. E. White, PhD—phytoplankton ecology and physiology, remote sensing, bio-optics, particle cycling, pelagic production and elemental cycling
R. Wright, PhD—hyperspectral imaging instrument development, remote sensing, infrared radiometry, volcanology
S. Yoshida, PhD—global ocean modeling, high-frequency variations, air-sea interaction
R. E. Zeebe, PhD—global biogeochemical cycles, carbon dioxide system in seawater and interrelations with marine plankton, paleoceanography, stable isotope geochemistry

The Academic Program

Global Environmental Science (GES) is a holistic, scientific approach to the study of the Earth system and its physical, chemical, biological, and human processes. This academic program is designed to educate leaders and citizenry to become wise stewards of our planet. GES focuses on the global reservoirs of hydrosphere (water, primarily oceans), biosphere (life and organic matter), atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land, sediments, and rocks), and cryosphere (ice); their interfaces; and the processes acting upon and within this interactive system, including human activities. In the course of their scientific studies, GES students are able to investigate natural as well as economic, policy, and social systems and their response and interaction with the Earth system. GES has important ties to the more classical sciences of geology and geophysics, meteorology and climatology, oceanography, and ecology as well as to the social sciences. Thus, the scope of GES is extremely broad. This breadth is reflected in the interdisciplinary nature of the faculty, which is primarily drawn from numerous departments and research institutions within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

GES has much to offer the student who is interested in the environment and the effect of humans on the environment. The skills developed in GES can be brought to bear on local, regional, and global environmental issues. Many of the critical environmental problems confronting humankind involve large-scale processes and interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere, cryosphere, shallow lithosphere, and people. Some of the problems derive from natural causes; others are a result of human activities. Some of the issues that GES students deal with are: climatic changes from anthropogenic inputs to the atmosphere of CO2 and other greenhouse gases; human interventions and disruptions in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, trace metals, and other substances; emissions of nitrogen and sulfur oxide gases and volatile organic compounds to the atmosphere and the issues of acid deposition and photochemical smog; depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and associated increase in the flux of ultraviolet radiation to Earth’s surface; increasing rates of tropical deforestation and other large-scale destruction of habitat, with potential effects on climate and the hydrologic cycle; disappearance of biotic diversity through explosive rates of species extinction; global consequences of the distribution and application of potentially toxic chemicals in the environment and biotechnology; interannual and interdecadal climate variability, e.g., El Niño/Southern Oscillation; eutrophication; water and air quality; exploitation of natural resources with consequent problems of waste disposal; earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural hazards and prediction; and waste disposal: municipal, toxic chemical, and radioactive. In all cases, the student is encouraged to understand and appreciate the social, economic, and ultimately the policy decisions associated with these and other environmental issues.

Specifically with respect to learning objectives, the students develop competency in understanding how the physical, biological, and chemical worlds are interconnected in the Earth system. They obtain skills in basic mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology that enable them to deal with courses in the derivative geological, oceanographic, and atmospheric sciences at a level higher than that of qualitative description. In turn, these skills enable the students to learn the subject matter of GES within a rigorous context. The students develop an awareness of the complexity of the Earth system and how it has changed during geologic time and how human activities have modified the system and led to a number of local, regional, and global environmental issues. They become competent in using computers and dealing with environmental databases and with more standard sources of information in the field. They are exposed to experimental, observational, and theoretical methodologies of research and complete an environmentally focused senior research thesis in environmental study using one or more of these methodologies. Project field work is encouraged for the senior thesis and, depending on the topic chosen by the student, can be carried out at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology’s Coconut Island facility, E. W. Pauley Laboratory, associated Heʻeia ahupuaʻa, Ka Papa Loʻi O Kanewai, or elsewhere.

The ultimate objective of the GES program is to produce a student informed in the environmental sciences at a rigorous level who is able to go on to graduate or professional school; enter the workforce in environmental science positions in industry, business, or government; enter or return to teaching with knowledge of how the Earth system works; or enter the workforce in another field as an educated person with the knowledge required to become a wise environmental steward of the planet. The GES program is the world’s first environmental science program accredited by the Applied and Natural Science Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc., or ABET.

Mission Statement

Educate students in creating, developing, and disseminating knowledge through high-quality and innovative faculty-mentored research experiences;
Train environmental scientists able to apply a rich diversity of knowledge systems that are committed to sustain and transform our islands and the world.
Cultivate creative and innovative leaders in environmental science impacting local to global communities.

Program Educational Objectives

There are four GES Program Educational Objectives, which are broad statements that describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years after graduation.

Apply knowledge and critical thinking skills to attain advanced disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and professional degrees.
Apply knowledge and critical thinking skills to the practice of environmental science to become leaders in public and private sector professional careers impacting local to global communities.
Apply principles of environmental justice and ethics, sustainability, and Indigenous practices and knowledge in their careers.
Demonstrate the ability to conduct independent basic or applied research.

Student Outcomes

All graduates of the Global Environmental Science program are expected to have demonstrated an ability to:

Identify, formulate, explain, and solve broadly defined technical or scientific problems relevant to local communities and/or global contexts by applying knowledge of mathematics, science, and Indigenous practices and knowledge in environmentally-related disciplines.
Design a system, process, procedure or program to meet desired needs.
Develop and conduct experiments or test hypotheses, analyze and interpret data and use scientific judgment to draw conclusions.
Communicate effectively with a range of audiences in both written and oral communication.
Understand ethical and professional responsibilities and the impact of technical and/or scientific solutions in economic, environmental, and societal contexts; both locally and globally.
Function effectively on teams that establish goals, plan tasks, meet deadlines, and analyze risk and uncertainty.

Advising

Students contemplating a major in Global Environmental Science should contact the Student Academic Services in HIGH 131B (808) 956-8763. The GES Program can be contacted via ges@soest.hawaii.edu and phone (808) 956-2913.

BS in Global Environmental Science

The Global Environmental Science program has three tracks (with defined coupled system courses) in the cross-disciplinary environmental science areas of (1) environmental health (2) environmental planning, and (3) sustainability science. For each of these tracks, the collaborating department and their faculty have agreed to support the major required research thesis project so that GES students are able to focus both their curricular and research experience in track’s subject material.

Environmental Health Sciences (cross-disciplinary with Department of Public Health Sciences): This track enables a student in the Global Environmental Sciences Program to concentrate his/her academic studies in areas of significant importance in the relationship between environmental issues and public health. The inter-relationship between the environment and its impact on human health is vast and constantly changing. Issues such as food security, emerging zoonotic diseases, water scarcity, air and water pollution, over population, waste disposal, pesticide use, depletion of resources on land and in the sea are just a few of the pressing environmental issues that affect the health and well-being of millions of people worldwide. In this track students will gain the basic scientific knowledge necessary to understand the underlying science of the environment while simultaneously being exposed to public health principles that are essential for establishing cause and effect relationships between environmental conditions and human health, as well as understanding the compromises that sometimes must be made to accommodate economic, health, and environmental preservation goals. Graduates of this track will be uniquely positioned for careers in the environmental health field ranging from laboratory workers to regulatory policy and enforcement officers with environmental agencies.
Environmental Planning (cross-disciplinary with Department of Urban and Regional Planning): Global environmental problems like human-induced climate change challenge local strategies to manage natural resources, protect sensitive species’ habitats, and ensure the long-term health of ecosystems. With over fifty-percent of the world’s population now living in urban areas and consuming most of the Earth’s resources, the way we plan, design, and regulate our cities exacerbates local conditions. At the same time, urban areas are also important locations for solutions. Environmental planners adopt solutions-oriented approaches to address environmental problems, such as supporting local food production, building disaster risk reduction, deploying clean sources of energy, conserving biodiversity and natural habitats, managing urban waste, adapting to sea-level rise, and preserving freshwater resources. Planning as a discipline has a long tradition in problem solving across different scales from neighborhoods to entire regions with extensive community involvement. Graduates will be uniquely positioned for careers as environmental planners, specialists, and consultants employed by government agencies or private firms required to review planning permits, develop master plans, prepare environmental impact studies, or develop mitigation strategies to minimize development impacts.
Sustainability Science: In collaboration with Hawai’i Natural Energy Institute, Sustainability Science probes interactions between global, social, and human systems, the complex mechanisms that lead to degradation of these systems, and concomitant risks to human well-being. As Sustainability Science has emerged in the 21st century as a new academic discipline, it brings together scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives, and disciplines across the natural and social sciences, engineering, and medicine—facilitating the design, implementation, and evaluation of practical interventions that promote sustainability in particular places and contexts. The GES graduate from the sustainability track is prepared for opportunities in all fields that would hire environmental scientists, and to be especially competitive for those opportunities that target the design, analysis, implementation, maintenance, and/or monitoring of processes or systems that target increased sustainability.

Global Environmental Science Honors Track

Please see “Programs” section below for more information about this program.

Combined Bachelor’s and Master’s Pathways

In collaboration with select departments across the UH Mānoa campus, the Global Environmental Science program offers combined Bachelor’s-and-Master’s (BAM) degree pathways, which help students earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just five years. The pathways allow GES students to double-count relevant credits towards both their undergraduate and graduate degrees and also earn graduate-level credits at the undergraduate tuition rate, essentially saving time and money.

Programs

Bachelor’s

Combined