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Michael G. Hadfield

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Dr. Michael G. Hadfield outside of Kewalo Marine Laboratory

Michael Gale Hadfield is an invertebrate biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[1][2] His research has focused on the larvae of marine invertebrates and native tree snails in Hawai'i. He retired in 2013, but has remained active in research[3][4] and was recognized in 2023 as one of the top ecology and evolutionary scientists in the U.S. and the world.[5]

Biography

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Education

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Michael G. Hadfield was born in 1937. He attended the University of Washington where he earned both a B.A. and M.S. in Zoology. Hadfield was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, which allowed him to study in the marine laboratory of the University of Copenhagen under famed larval biologist Gunnar Thorson.[1][6] He obtained his PhD in Biological Sciences at Stanford University.[1][2] After completing his PhD in 1966, Hadfield taught at Pomona College until 1968, when he moved to Hawai'i[7] to accept a faculty position at the University of Hawai'i. He was hired as part of the inaugural faculty at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, a unit in the Pacific Biomedical Research Center, which was completed 4 years after he arrived in Hawai'i. Hadfield served as the director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory for 11 years, from 1996 to 2007.

Research and publications

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Hadfield's research on reproduction and development focused on marine gastropods and worms, and later, terrestrial snails in the Pacific which included many endemic Hawaiian tree snails.[8][9] After extensive fieldwork revealed that the snails were rapidly disappearing, one of Hadfield's major projects included a captive-rearing facility where the snails could be rescued and grown into populations that could re-introduce snails back into the wild.[3] His research on Achatinella was pivotal in ensuring that all species in this genus were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1982.[1][10]

In 1972, Hadfield described several Hawaiian species in the family Vermetidae, including Petaloconchus keenae, Dendropoma gregarium, Cupolaconcha meroclista, Dendropoma psarocephalum and Thylacodes variabilis, with E. Alison Kay.[11] He was a plenary speaker at the annual conference of the Australian Marine Sciences Association in July 2003.[12]

Thylacodes hadfieldi is a species of marine gastropod in the family Vermetidae that was described by Walter C. Kelly III in 2007, and named after Michael G. Hadfield. This species is known only to occur on the central east coast of Guam.[13]

Hydroides elegans adults in tubes.

For the last 30 years, Hadfield and colleagues have pioneered investigations of the molecular signaling by which bacteria induce larvae of marine organisms, particularly Hydroides elegans, to settle and metamorphose.[14][15]

Community contributions

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Captive breeding program: Hawaiian tree snails

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Image showing a preserved voucher specimen of 4 shells of the tree snail Achatinella apexfulva, with original handwritten label and modern typed label.
Preserved specimens of Achatinella apexfulva (Dixon, 1789)

In 1989, he established a captive breeding program for Hawaiian tree snails. In 1997, the last few individuals of the now extinct species, Achatinella apexfulva were collected. Unfortunately, the last remaining individual of this species, a 14 year old snail named "George" died on New Year's Day 2019.[16][17][18][19]

Pahole Natural Area Reserve

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In 1998, Hadfield urged the state of Hawai'i to build exclosures in the Pahole Natural Area Reserve. The exclosure helped to protect the remaining species of Achatinella by preventing predators such as the rat and the rosy wolf snail from entering the sensitive habitat.[20][21]

Pagan Island tree snail survey
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In 2010, Hadfield visited Pagan Island in the Mariana archipelago to perform a survey of the island for tree snails. The critically endangered species Partula gibba was of particular interest for this study.[22] He became a vocal opponent of the US Navy's plan to establish a live-fire training range on the island of Pagan. He expressed concerns about the impacts on the biodiversity of the island that would be caused by live-fire training, and he noted that Pagan was inhabited by local people and considered to be their homeland.[21][23][24][25][26] In 2013, Hadfield wrote an open letter opposing the US Navy' plans.[27] On April 2, 2014, he led a talk titled "Environmental Issues of the Mariana Islands", which was held at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, where he discussed the biodiversity of the island of Pagan and the live-fire training range plans of the U.S. Navy.[28]

In 2022, Hadfield and other experts discussed the extinction crisis of the Hawaiian tree snails in an audio documentary. He emphasized the destructive impacts caused by invasive introduced predators like the rat, and the rosy wolf snail.[20]

Established programs
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Hadfield was a co-director for a National Science Foundation funded program, Environmental Biology for Pacific Islanders, which helped students focus on conservation of native species and species habitats through hands-on learning[29]

Awards and honors

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In 2014, Hadfield was the first recipient of the M. Patricia Morse Award for Excellence and Innovation in Science Education by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Hadfield, Michael G.; Haraway, Donna J. (August 1, 2019). "The Tree Snail Manifesto". Current Anthropology. Vol. 60, no. S20. pp. S209–S235. doi:10.1086/703377. ISSN 0011-3204. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Michael (Mike) Gale Hadfield: Shellers From the Past and Present". n.d. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Crowl, Janice (April–May 2011). "Kahuli Homecoming". Hana Hou!. Vol. 14, no. 2. Honolulu. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  4. ^ "Hadfield Named Professor Emeritus" (Press release). May 23, 2014. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  5. ^ "UH researchers well represented in multiple disciplines in global ranking | University of Hawaiʻi System News". May 2, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  6. ^ "Marine Biocomplexity" (PDF). The Australian Marine Sciences Association. 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  7. ^ Altonn, Helen (July 24, 2005). "Marine lab looks for new home". Honolulu Star - Bulletin. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  8. ^ "Michael G. Hadfield". University of Hawaiʻi Kewalo Marine Laboratory. Archived from the original on February 15, 2023. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  9. ^ Schueller, Gretel H. (February 2002). "Saving the Jewels of the Trees". Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  10. ^ "ECOS: Species Profile". U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  11. ^ Hadfield, M. G.; Kay, E. A.; Gillette, M. U.; Lloyd, M. C. (1972). "The vermetidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of the Hawaiian Islands". Marine Biology. Vol. 12, no. 1. pp. 81–98. doi:10.1007/bf00347431. ISSN 0025-3162. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  12. ^ "2003 Brisbane". Australian Marine Sciences Association. 2003. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  13. ^ Kelly III, W. C. (2007). "Three new vermetid gastropod species from Guam". Micronesica. Vol. 39, no. 2. pp. 117–140.
  14. ^ Kresge, Nicole. "Developing Relationships". HHMI. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  15. ^ Bryn, Brandon (January 9, 2014). "Science: Bacterial 'Harpoon' Triggers Tubeworm Metamorphosis". AAAS. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  16. ^ Altonn, H. (September 27, 2009). "Rats killing native snails on Molokai". Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
  17. ^ Galka, J. (2022). "Mollusk loves: Becoming with native and introduced land snails in the Hawaiian Islands" (PDF). Island Studies Journal. Vol. 17, no. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.[page needed]
  18. ^ "World's loneliest snail dies, and a species goes extinct". Animals. National Geographic. January 8, 2019. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  19. ^ "01/04/19: The Last Known Land Snail of His Kind Dies". n.d. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  20. ^ a b van Dooren, T.; Ulman, J. (February 22, 2021). "The disappearing voice of the forest: Snail stories from Hawai'i". The Living Archive. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  21. ^ a b van Dooren, T. (2022). A world in a shell: Snail stories for a time of extinctions. The MIT Press.
  22. ^ Hadfield, M. G. (2010). Pagan Island Tree-Snail Surveys: A report to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
  23. ^ "Mariana officials bristle at US military's live-fire plans for Pagan, Tinian". Stars and Stripes. n.d. Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  24. ^ Andrews, R. (June 8, 2015). "War games vs wildlife: The US military wants to bomb this island gem in the Pacific". Earth Touch News Network. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  25. ^ Swanson, Dave (Director) (February 2014). "U.S. Marine Corps Threatens Small Pacific Island". Talk Nation Radio. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  26. ^ Cave, J. (June 4, 2015). "The Pentagon Wants to Bomb the Hell Out of This Tiny Pacific Island". Honolulu Civil Beat. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  27. ^ Hadfield, M. (August 19, 2013). "U.S. Marines Plan to Destroy Another Island". Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  28. ^ "Environmental Issues of the Mariana Islands Discussed at the University of Hawaii". Pacific News Center. April 4, 2014. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  29. ^ "New cohort begins environmental biology summer internship for Pacific Islanders". University of Hawaiʻi News. May 23, 2017. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  30. ^ Murata, T. (January 8, 2014). "Hadfield Awarded the M. Patricia Morse Award for Excellence and Innovation in Science Education". Pacific Biosciences Research Center. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
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