Kilo ʻĀina Student research update: Streams

Our group spent the first week finding our access point to a stream, as our team had decided for the project to take samples from different streams with different surroundings. It wasn’t as simple as you’d think between the polar vortex providing us with gushing streams to the upcoming summer drying our stream, it felt almost like we’d be returning to a entirely different stream each time! (Technically we really were!)

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”-Heraclitus

We picked three particular steams for our project: Waiawa Stream, a stream surrounded by heavy traffic, construction and a scrapyard; Waimalu Stream, a stream that’s mainly surrounded by housing but is also home to a sewer maintenance plant; and Waikele Stream, a stream that’s neighbors with a plantation.

In each stream, we measured temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH, as well as looking at the microorganisms via plankton tows!

Our first couple of observations of organisms under the microscope were hard, but eventually we managed toobserve interesting creatures like mosquito larvae as well as other strange beings.

As of recent we’ve been logging down and comparing and contrasting stream reports as well as continue to look at any and all microorganisms we find!

- Walter