Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT)
in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Headline News


2020, December : UH oceanographer’s TED talk among 2020’s most watched

What ideas captured people’s attention the most in 2020? The list of the most watched TED Talks of 2020 provides some perspective. Among the talks that intrigued and propelled us to the end of this world-shifting year is Angelicque White’s presentation to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, DC on what ocean microbes reveal about the changing climate.

view SOEST press release


2020, May : Jim Potemra honored with Board of Regents Service Award

James Potemra, specialist with the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in SOEST, has been honored with a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Presidential Award for Outstanding Service. This award recognizes Potemra’s outstanding service, heart-felt dedication, and noble contributions as a valued member of the campus community.

view SOEST press release


2020, January : UH oceanographer presents TED talk at the National Academy of Sciences

Angelicque White, associate professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) was an invited speaker at TED's first entirely science-focused Institute event, held at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, DC. A video of her talk, was made publicly available today.

view SOEST press release


2019, August : New leadership as ocean and climate research program celebrates over 30 years of discovery

August 1, 2019 marks a transition to new leadership for one of the longest running open ocean research programs in the world. Angelicque White, a newly-hired oceanography associate professor at the University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) will lead the next chapter of the monumental Hawai'i Ocean Time-series (HOT) program.

view SOEST press release


2019, June : Leaving microbes out of climate change conversation has major consequences

An international group of leading microbiologists, including University of Hawai'i at Mānoa oceanography Professor David Karl, has issued a warning: Not including microbes, considered the support system of the biosphere, in any climate equation will lead to incomplete predictions of the environmental consequences of global climate change.

view SOEST press release, UH News


2018, October : The Hawaii Ocean Time-series: 30th Anniversary Collection

The 30th Anniversary of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program is being celebrated with a virtual issue of the academic journal Limnology and Oceanography. This volume of seminal papers from HOT published by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) on biogeochemistry, ocean physics, and plankton ecology is freely available.

view SOEST press release, Introductory article & ThinkTech Hawaii interview


2018, August : Ocean and climate research gets $9M boost

The Hawai'i Ocean Time-series (HOT) program based at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa has been awarded $9 million in new funding from the National Science Foundation to continue for another five years. Even more auspicious, this month marks the 30th anniversary of the endeavor that has led to so many discoveries in marine ecology and ocean and climate sciences.

view UH News


2018, February : Ocean climate change research sets benchmark

The University of Hawai'i has hit a major milestone in its critical research to observe and understand how the ocean responds to climate change. On February 28, 2018, UH's research vessel Kilo Moana returned from its 300th scientific expedition of the Hawai'i Ocean Time-series (HOT) program. Completion of 300 research cruises makes Station ALOHA, about 60 miles north of O'ahu, one of the best-sampled places in the world's oceans with a decades-long record of how the ocean responds to climate change.

view UH News


2017, August : New gene catalog of ocean microbiome reveals surprises

Microbes dominate the planet, especially the ocean, and help support the entire marine food web. In a recent report published in Nature Microbiology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa oceanography professor Ed DeLong and his team report the largest single-site microbiome gene catalog constructed to date. With this new information, the team discovered nutrient limitation is a central driver in the evolution of ocean microbe genomes.

view UH News


2015, October : Ocean Station ALOHA designated a Milestones in Microbiology site

Ocean Station ALOHA, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's (UHM) research site 60 miles north of Oahu, Hawai'i, has been designated a Milestones in Microbiology site by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). ASM Milestones in Microbiology program recognizes institutions and scientists that have made significant contributions toward advancing the microbial sciences.

view UH News


2014, July : Ocean's most abundant organisms have daily cycles

Communities of ocean microbes have their own daily cycles, and they are not all about the sun. Photoautotrophs - bacteria that use solar energy to help them photosynthesize food - have been known to sun themselves on a regular schedule. But in a new study published in the journal Science, researchers working at Station ALOHA, a deep ocean study site 100 km north of O'ahu, observed different species of free-living, heterotrophic bacteria turning on diel cycling genes at slightly different times, suggesting a wave of transcriptional activity that passes through the microbial community each day. Oceanography professor and C-MORE co-PI and co-director Ed DeLong was head of the MIT team that made this discovery.

view NSF's Science360


2014, March : Station ALOHA Habitat for ocean observation

"A circle in the Pacific 12 miles across gives scientists a laboratory for studying the sea."

view Honolulu Star Advertiser


2013, March 13 : Hawai'i Ocean Time-series Program reaches milestone

On March 9, 2013, the UH research vessel Kilo Moana returned from the 250th scientific expedition of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program after nearly 25 years of approximately monthly research cruises to observe and interpret habitat variability and to track climate impacts on Hawaii's marine ecosystem. "It is really satisfying to reach this milestone, and to see the growing importance of the HOT program accomplishment,." said David Karl, Oceanography Professor and Director of (C-MORE). "Each additional year of observations brings us closer to a fundamental understanding of how the ocean functions, and its relationships to climate."

view SOEST press release


2012, February 12 : HOT news: Pacific carbon pump speeds up in summer

Using 13 years of Hawai'i Ocean Time-series (HOT) data from Station ALOHA (about 100 miles north of O'ahu), an international team of scientists led by David Karl, professor of Oceanography and director of C-MORE, has documented a regular, significant, and unexpected increase in the amount of particulate matter exported to the deep sea in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The findings were published in the 07 February 2012 issue of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Oceanography assistant professor Matthew Church is a co-author.

view UH News


2010, September : Oceanic ecosystem time-series programs: Ten lessons learned

Published as part of a special issue of Oceanography to celebrate 50 years of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

view reprint from TOS


2010, June 29 : Nutrients go deep, sunlight stays shallow?

"An ongoing mystery is how marine algae manage to be very productive when the sunshine they need for photosynthesis is only near the surface and the nitrate nutrients they require are in the deep ocean. Ken Johnson (MBARI), Steve Riser (UW), and Dave Karl (director of C-MORE) studied nitrate fluxes at Station ALOHA; their findings were published in 06-24-10 issue of the prestigious journal Nature." (SOEST in the News)

view Honolulu Star Bulletin


2010, March 17 : National Academy of Sciences honors UH-Manoa

"A group of Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) scientists from UH and Montana State will receive the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences for the best scientific paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in the areas of physical sciences and mathematics."

view The Honolulu Advertiser


2009, August 16 : Research ship gets Sen. Inouye's praise

"'National interests are well-served', commented U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye after his recent tour of the Research Vessel Kilo Moana at the University of Hawaii Marine Center. SOEST's Dean Brian Taylor and some other scientists who have used the ship since 2002 treated Hawaii's senior senator to a sampling of the wide range of cutting-edge science they do from this unique twin-hulled platform." (SOEST in the News)

view Honolulu Star Bulletin


2009, August 7 : Station ALOHA Stands Sentinel

view reprint from Environmental Science & Technology Perspective


2009, July 31 : Station ALOHA data reveal ocean acidification

"Reporting in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lead author and former SOEST researcher John Dore (now at Montana State University) presents an analysis of the changes of pH at Station ALOHA over time and depth. Dore, along with SOEST co-authors Dave Karl, Roger Lukas, Matt Church, and Dan Sadler, found that the surface ocean grew more acidic at exactly the rate expected from chemical equilibration with increasing atmospheric CO2" (SOEST in the News)

view SOEST press release


2009, Winter : "The Ocean is HOT: 20 years of Hawaii Ocean Time-series Research in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre"

view reprint from OCB News


2009, March 7 : Surprising phytoplankton body-building technique

"In a paper published in Nature, an international team of scientists, including UH oceanography professor David Karl, director of the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Reasearch and Education (C-MORE), and oceanography assistant researcher Michael Rappe, describe a novel strategy for marine phytoplankton growth in the vast nutrient-poor habitats of tropical and subtropical seas. " (SOEST in the News)

view SOEST press release


2009, 1(1) : Microbial observatories in the sea

All marine habitats support diverse and dynamic assemblages of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, eukarya and their viral and metazoan predators. These complex communities interact through a variety of genetic, metabolic and ecological processes to sustain life in the sea. Recent discoveries of novel microbes, new metabolic pathways and their intimate interrelations have challenged pre-existing paradigms and have led to a renewed commitment to a comprehensive study of the biology and ecology of marine microorganisms from genomes to biomes.

view excerpt from Crystal ball - 2009 : Environmental Microbiology Reports


2008, February 25 : Oceanography research program reaches milestone

"On February 21, 2008, the SOEST research vessel Kilo Moana departed from the UH Marine Center on the 200th scientific expedition of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) after nearly 20 years of approximately monthly research cruises to observe and interprete habitat variability and to track climate impacts on Hawaii's marine ecosystem." (SOEST in the News)

view SOEST press release & UH News


2006, January 26 : Sequencing our Seas

Using data collected at Station ALOHA, scientists have sequenced and compared the genomes of planktonic microbes living throughout the water column in the Pacific Ocean. The pioneering study yielded insight into the specialization of microbial communities at each depth - ranging from 40 to more than 13,000 feet. (SOEST in the News)

view SOEST press release


2006, January 30 : Ocean plants show effects of warming

Phytoplankton can be affected by climate change, according to a study published by Nature. Oceanographer David Karl worked with colleagues in the Netherlands to compare climate models to results from Station ALOHA. (SOEST in the News)

view Honolulu Star Bulletin


2005, June 21 : Tiny ocean species hold big surprises

David Karl and other University of Hawaii oceanographers are part of an international group trying to unravel the secrets of microscopic life in the ocean using observations and data collected at Sation ALOHA. (SOEST in the News)

view Honolulu Star Bulletin


2003, November 30 : UH researchers puzzle over oxygen output from oceans

A new study published in the journal Nature shows that the ocean is a consumer of organic matter, opposing previous views on the oxygen balance of the ocean. (SOEST in the News)

view Honolulu Star Bulletin