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Eric Conklin, Ph.D.

Marine Science Director, Hawaiʻi & Palmyra

Hawai'i

Headshot of Eric Conklin.

Eric Conklin Eric Conklin, Ph.D. is the Marine Science Director for the Hawaiʻi & Palmyra program. © TNC

Areas of Expertise

coral reef ecology and restoration, reef resilience, invasive species, monitoring

Media Contact

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Biography

Eric has worked in marine conservation in Hawaiʻi for nearly 30 years. Since joining TNC in 2007, he developed and implemented alien algae control programs; provided scientific assessments of marine resource policy; implemented a statewide community-based monitoring program; and established TNC’s first certified scientific diving program. He also initiated reef resilience assessments and ongoing monitoring in Hawai‘i and at Palmyra Atoll following devastating coral bleaching events and helped design coral restoration pilot projects in Hawai‘i to test methods to scale restoration and help the reefs recover.

Eric collaborates with partners across the scientific community, government agencies and local communities to design and implement biological monitoring and science projects to address conservation needs in Hawai‘i and Palmyra Atoll. He also collaborates to ensure conservation strategies are informed by both the latest scientific findings and Native Hawaiian knowledge, that Indigenous Data Sovereignty is maintained, and that the effectiveness of conservation strategies is critically evaluated through focused monitoring and research projects.

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Marrack, L. Wiggins, C., Marra, J., Genz, A., Most, R., Falinski, K., Conklin, E. (2021) Assessing the spatial-temporal response of groundwater-fed anchialine ecosystems to sea-level rise for coastal zone management. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystem. 31(853-869).

Ford H, Gove J, Davies A, Graham N, Healey J, Conklin E, Williams G. 2020. Spatial scaling properties of coral reef benthic communities. Ecography, 43: 1-11; http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05331.

Maynard J, Conklin E, Minton D, Williams GJ, Tracey D, Amimoto R, Carr R, Fielding E, Lynch H, Rose J, Sparks R, Sylva R, White D. 2019. Assessing the Resilience of Leeward Maui Reefs to Help Design a Resilient Managed Area Network. NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP 33, 40 pp.

Delevaux, J.M.S., R. Whittier, K.A. Stamoulis, L.L. Bremer, S. Jupiter, A.M. Friedlander, M. Poti, G. Guannel, N. Kurashima, K.B. Winter, R. Toonen, E. Conklin, C. Wiggins, A. Knudby, W. Goodell, K. Burnett, S. Yee, H. Htun, K.L.L. Oleson, T. Wiegner, T. Ticktin 2018. A linked land-sea modeling framework to inform ridge-to-reef management in high oceanic islands. PLoS ONE 13: e0193230. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193230 

Friedlander AM, Donovan MK, Stamoulis KA, Williams I.D., Brown E.K., Conklin, E.J., Demartini, E.E., Rodgers, K.S., Sparks, R.T., Walsh, W.J. 2017. Human‐induced gradients of reef fish declines in the Hawaiian archipelago viewed through the lens of traditional management boundaries. Aquatic Conserv: Mar Freshw Ecosyst. 2017;1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2832.

Bradley D., E. Conklin, Y.P. Papastamatiou, D.J. McCauley, K. Pollock, A. Pollock, B.E. Kendall, S.D. Gaines, and J.E. Caselle. 2017. Resetting predator baselines in coral reef ecosystems. Sci. Rep. 7, 43131; doi: 10.1038/srep43131. 

Maynard, J., Conklin, E., Minton, D., Most, R., Couch, C., Williams, G.J., Gove, J., Schumacher, B., Walsh, W., Martinez, J., Harper, D., Jayewardene D., Parker, B., Watson, L. 2016. Relative resilience potential and bleaching severity in the West Hawai’i Habitat Focus Area in 2015. NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP 26, 53 pp. doi:10.7289/V5T43R4Z