Coconut Island Research Day

It was a really sunny and wonderful day working on the Coconut Island with all of you guys. We took water samples at the surface of the water as well as inside the algae to measure the pH. The whole purpose of doing these things is to see how algae in the shallow water column affect the chemistry of the water surround and inside the canopy so that further conclusion of the relationship and the interaction between the algae and the organisms can be drawn.

We first set a very expensive hi-tech device into the water to measure the speed of the water flow near the algae canopy. Since water is dynamic and goes in and out of algae, it is an important factor to determine how water flow will mix the water in and out of the canopy and eventually change the water's chemistry.

We used large plungers with long, thin needles to takle water sample inside the algae. But before that, we had to rinse the plunger as well as the sample bottles with sample water. The bottle's cap, the groove at the mouth of the bottle, and the bottle itself should be rinsed 5 times to avoid any contamination. After that, the needle should be replaced with a small filter with a 0.7-um filter paper inside. The purpose of using such filter is to filter all the large planktons and some waste stuff in the sample water and obtain a relatively "clear" water sample from different location. Later, the water sample will be analyzed in the lab.

The other part of the task that we did on that day was practice how to take small amount of water sample for pH analysis. Since pH is highly dependent on temperature, we should measure the temperature of the water sample as soon as the sample water was taken. In order to do this, the 25 ml plungger with a long, thin needle attached and sample bottle should be first rinsed with sample water. Then, half fill the sample bottle with sample water. Measure the temperature of the sample before it is getting cooler or warmer. Be careful with the fingers that were used to hold the sample bottle! After the temperature was measured, overfill the bottle with sample water. Finally, cap the bottle and make sure there is no air bubbles in the bottle.

It is a pretty interesting workday since I have learned a lot about how to take water samples for different research purposes. What is more, we saw several beautiful sea jellies in the water. They look really similar to algae patches, but they have different color and are very dangerous if people touch them or just get close to them.

Fishpond Tales

Aloha kakou!

Eia ka hui 'o Laulima A 'Ike Pono. E hana ana mākou ma He'eia Fishpond. Nui ka hana 'epekema ma kēia loko i'a. E nānā nei mākou i nā limu maika'i 'ole a me nā holoholona maika'i 'ole pū. I ka lā 'iwakāluakūmālua o Malaki, ua kūkulu mākou i nā 'ie nō ka i'a a me ka papa'i. Ua hōʻoiaʻiʻo i nā 'ie akā, 'a'ole mākou i hei ka mea e loaʻa ana. No laila, ua ne'e mākou i nā 'ie i nā wahi 'oko'a. Eia nā ki'i i ka mākou mau hana:

Ua kukulu mākou i kekahi 'ie ʻē aʻe. I keia 'ie e ho'oka'awale i na po'ii'a no laila, hiki iā mākou ke nānā i nā i'a, ʻōpae aniani, a me nā papa'i.

Ua hele mākou i loko o ka loko i'a me ka 'ie ho'oka'awale po'ii'a. Ua hei na i'a, ʻōpae aniani, a me kekahi papa'i, ua 'iniki ka papa'i iā Megsie, 'eha loa!

I ke ki'i hope, eia kekahi ʻōpae aniani hāpai, hoihoi kēlā!

Mahalo nui loa! Makemake mākou e luana lākou i kā mākou mau hana!
Ā hiki i manawa hope!

Huis!


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Translation:

Hello Everyone!

This is our internship Laulima A 'Ike Pono. We are working at He'eia Fishpond. There is a lot of scientific work here at the fishpond. We look at the invasive algae and invasive animals too. March 22, we built fish and crab cages. We checked the cages but we didn't catch anything in them. Therefore, we moved the cages to different areas. Here are pictures of our work:

We built another kind of trap. This trap excludes predators so that we can look at the fish, glass shrimp and crabs.

We went into the fishpond with the predator exclusion traps. We caught fish, glass shrimp and a crab. The crab bit Megsie, it was really sore!

The last picture is of a pregnant crab, very interesting!

Thank you very much! We hope you enjoy our work!
Until next time!

Bye!

We get paid to do this!

A great day at the pond on Saturday.  In addition to seeing the new baby ducklings, we also rescued a small puffer fish that was disoriented and in a bit of a bind on the kuapa.  And the interns got in a whole lotta research.

Teamwork - Arthur, Tiana and Leila

Getting it done - Chris, Martin, and Sawako

Creatures of the Limu Pt I: The Sea Cucumber

Martin Guo shows off his find.

Here's an exciting invert found around Kane'ohe Bay: Opheodesoma spectabilis, a somewhat-modile, fluid -filled inhabitant of reefs and Gracilaria canopies alike. O. spectabilis is a Holothuroidian, a sea cucumber (or weli, in Hawai'i), and unlike the darker, "meatier" sea cucumbers found around Hawai'i, lacks tube feet on its ventral surface. Instead, it has tiny spicules all over the surface of its body, giving it a sticky texture (try detaching one from your wetsuit!). It is a filter feeder (hence the frilly mouthparts, above), and common in Kane'ohe Bay and Pearl Harbor.

Nice to meet you guys on this blog

Hi everyone,
How are you doing? I just want to say it is really awesome to work with you guys in the fishpond. I really have learned a lot of valuable sampling methods. See you next Tuesday, and have a good weekend.


Martin Guo

Working out the details

On Tuesday, our interns started testing some methods.  Megsie, one of our graduate student mentors, is trying to understand the impact that the invasive mangrove forests may have on the invertebrate and algal communities in the pond (and hence food webs).  She is going to take measurements on the sediment depth, diversity of organisms in the sediments, and algal cover in areas around mangroves and areas that have already been cleared.  So yesterday was a day for the interns to practice the techniques - water depth, sediment cores, sieving for organisms, and algal quadrats along transects perpendicular to the wall. 

Auntie Donnie's