Research geographer to study drought in Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Lisa Shirota, (808) 956-7352
Communications Director, Social Sciences, Dean's Office
Posted: Oct 27, 2016

Abby Frazier
Abby Frazier

Changing temperature and precipitation patterns related to climate change may exacerbate extreme conditions, like drought, in the Pacific Islands. These conditions can have serious implications for the supply of freshwater on islands, the health of important ecosystems and wildlife species, and the ability of many local communities to continue their traditional ways of life. 

Abby Frazier, Research Geographer, has recently joined the U.S. Department of the Interior's Pacific Islands Climate Science Center, a center managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the USDA Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry as post-doctoral lead of a new effort to understand the future of drought impacts in Hawaiʻi and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands. This project will be a collaborative effort with UH Mānoa and the USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center. 

Frazier, stationed in Honolulu, will tap into state-of-the-science data on current and predicted climate and rainfall patterns, and will package and translate that information into forms designed for use by resource managers and community leaders. 

Frazier, who received her PhD in Geography at UH Mānoa in 2016, investigated “The influence of large-scale modes of climate variability on spatiotemporal rainfall patterns and vegetation response in Hawai‘i” in a research group led by Tom Giambelluca, a professor in the Geography Department in UH Mānoa's College of Social Sciences. 

For more information, visit: http://www.socialsciences.hawaii.edu/