Kauahi Perez- PhD, Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences
- Lab Technician at Soil Health Environment & Ecosystem Resilience [S(HE)R] Lab
Kauahi Perez
- PhD, Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences
- Lab Technician at Soil Health Environment & Ecosystem Resilience [S(HE)R] Lab
Soil Health, Environment, and Ecosystem Resilience
About
28
Publications
11,420
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Introduction
Currently, I am Research Support at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resource's Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center--ADSC for short. I process plant and tissue samples for nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, plant elemental analyses and heavy metals analyses.
Current institution
Soil Health Environment & Ecosystem Resilience [S(HE)R] Lab
Current position
- Lab Technician
Additional affiliations
December 2011 - August 2019
Position
- PhD Student
Description
- Conducted dissertation research evaluating molecular and morphological characters to identify Plumeria spp.
August 2007 - May 2013
Position
- Research Assistant
Description
- Lectured in small classes, tutored undergraduates, set up undergrad laboratory sections, graded exams and essays for writing intensive course.
August 2007 - December 2013
Publications
Publications (28)
The outcomes of a longitudinal study of the Akamai Internship Program, a seven week summer internship program in Hawai‘i, demonstrate success in retaining diverse undergraduate participants in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Established in 2003, Akamai partnered with all major astronomical observatories on Hawai‘i Island a...
Here we discuss the design and implementation of an introductory DNA Barcoding module that we developed for the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Science in Action Program, a two-week summer program that teaches high school students about Hawai‘i’s biodiversity. Students used the concept of characterization to explain the relationships among organis...
As part of the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators Professional Development Program (PDP), our team designed an activity for the Akamai internship program’s Preparation for Research Experiences and Projects (PREP) course. The activity focused on content around different renewable energy and storage technologies, and the widely applicable...
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) is one of the most important staple crops globally with particular cultural and economic significance in the Hawaiian Islands, yet the extent to which traditional cultivars persist remains unknown. The objective of this study was to elucidate the relationships between traditional Hawaiian sweet potato variet...
The integration of hard and soft skills has become increasingly important to employers. Colleges of agriculture and natural sciences can facilitate the development of these skills in their students. The purpose of this study was to explore impacts of a behavioral style learning unit on soft skill development with 15 students enrolled in a senior-le...
Consumer behavior is a complex phenomenon encompassing internal, external, and situational factors. This study examined perceptions of market consumers about fruits and vegetables in Trinidad and Tobago in terms of produce origin, growing method, and willingness to pay. A stratified purposive sample of consumers at 14 unique market locations was su...
Agricultural literacy programs are effective pathways to informally teach the public about agriculture through stakeholder (attendee and exhibitor) interaction. Such programs are generally evaluated using attendee feedback but fail to include exhibitors’ experience. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a local community agricultural event by (...
Learning by doing plays a critical role in a learner’s conceptual understanding. By actively engaging with a concept, students gain experience and develop an enduring understanding of the concept. The concept of pollen viability is a critical component in the field of plant breeding and can be used to explain various aspects of pollen quality. An i...
Understanding consumer perceptions and purchasing behaviors provides valuable information for extension educators in their creation of curricula, workshops, and communication materials. Agricultural community outreach events provide a relevant and social education experience to adult learners. The purpose of this study was to measure the success of...
An analysis on how pH adjustment of Brewbaker and Kwack (BK) media components affects Plumeria pollen germination in vitro.
A formal research chapter from my Master's thesis that corresponds to the poster regarding adjustment of pH improving Plumeria pollen germination.
A presentation that I gave to the Southern California Plumeria Society, who funded my research on Plumeria pollen biology, in July 2013 regarding my research findings on pollen viability assessments of Plumeria cultivars.
A poster I presented at the 2015 American Society for Horticultural Science Conference in New Orleans in August, discussing the potential usefulness of several intergenic spacer regions to identify Plumeria species.
This is a talk that I gave for a Teaching Methods Workshop at the 2015 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) Conference in New Orleans. It discusses my own personal perspective on how I think students can understand the concept of assessing pollen viability by actually carrying out pollen viability methods. Hence, learning by doing.
Over the years, poster presentations at scientific conferences have achieved the status of oral presentations. A conference may have hundreds or thousands of posters displayed in various sessions. However, after having gone to scientific conferences for 34 years, we realize there is still a misconception that a poster is simply a large piece of pap...
In the "traditional" classroom, the instructor lectures and students do homework outside of class. To reduce the amount of lecturing and promote more student engagement in class, the flipped classroom technique was introduced in several horticulture courses. In a flipped classroom, lectures are assigned for homework, and students do in the class wh...
Plumeria cultivars are important to Hawaiian floriculture and landscape industries, but many are susceptible to Plumeria Leaf Rust Disease. Current control methods are laborious, costly, and infeasible in non-commercial production settings. Hence, a more suitable method of controlling this disease would be to breed for rust resistance by hybridizin...
TPSS 601 Crop Modeling is a graduate course on crop models and crop simulations. It requires some calculus background and makes use of regression analysis and computer simulations. Students have used simulation programs such as CSMP (Continuous System Modeling Program, IBM) and STELLA (isee systems). The programs SAS, StatView (Abacus Corporation),...
TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems is a horticulture course with two 75-minute lectures and one 3-hour lab per week. Prior to 2008, past undergraduates who had taken this course often spoke of discordance in topics and overuse of guest lecturers. In the Spring 2008, a new instructor was appointed to teach this course. As a result of consulting wi...
For the spring semester 2011, we revised TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems, updating its topics, content, and teaching methods to meet the changing needs of the students. Discussions with the current and previous graduate teaching assistants for this course aided in the revision of the course topics. We included plasticulture, soilless growing m...
Plumerias are important ornamental plants to Hawaii’s horticulture and landscape industries. However, the majority of Plumeias are affected by Plumeria rust disease. Although methods for controlling this disease are available, these methods are laborious and costly. A more feasible solution would be to develop Plumeria hybrids that are rust-resista...
Teaching experience is important for a graduate student's professional development. However, opportunities are often limited. Our Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences (TPSS) Department has only three graduate teaching assistants per semester, and students can be a teaching assistant for up to two years. Thus, other graduate students lack the opportunity...
Teaching experience is important in a graduate student's professional development. However, opportunities are limited. Our department has only three graduate teaching assistants per semester, each assisting in three or four courses. Students can be a graduate teaching assistant for up to two years. Thus, there is a lack of opportunity for other gra...
Field trips play an important role in a horticultural course. Visits to farms and nurseries give students firsthand experience. However, one problem with field trips is students visiting the same farms/nurseries in several courses. In addition, there is the cost and availability of transportation by van and private cars on the island of Oahu and th...
Field trips play an important role in a horticultural course. Visits to farms and nurseries add much to a course by giving students firsthand experience. However, a problem with field trips is the students visiting the same farms/nurseries in several different courses. In addition, there is the cost and availability of transportation by van and pri...
Over the past ten years, course evaluations of HORT/TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems indicated students were not satisfied with the course. As such, for Spring 2008, TPSS 300 underwent major revisions in topics, content, and teaching methods to meet the needs of the students. Discussions with the previous instructors of this course, the TPSS un...
This import from Queensland, Australia, has received attention in the Hawaii landscape and plant nursery industries because of its beauty, fast growth, and adaptability.
Questions
Questions (7)
I was told that it was not possible to have more nitrite than nitrate in a given soil or plant extract. Is this true? If it is true, can someone please explain or provide some reference(s) to why it is NOT POSSIBLE to have more nitrite than nitrate in a soil or plant sample/extract?
I'm trying to do fresh, free-hand sections of a white poinsettia. I've infiltrated fresh bracts with a 0.25% PEG solution via vacuum infiltration and have encountered very wavy epidermal surfaces (adaxial surfaces?). I've never encountered this before in other poinsettias that I've been sectioning, so I'm wondering if this is normal or if this is due to prolonged vacuum/suction during infiltration. I've also noticed that this white poinsettia infiltrates fairly quickly (5-10 minutes), whereas other poinsettias take ~30-45 minutes to infiltrate. Is this particular white plant too old? Losing turgidity? (This plant was maintained in a shadehouse, but has since been kept in a lab for microscopy work, and has been kept hydrated to avoid wilting). Any thoughts?
I used CIPRES to run Bayesian Analyses on my data sets. I have my con.tre files, and I open them up in iTOL, then export them as Newick trees so I can edit them quicker in MEGA X. However, when I open the newick trees in MEGA X, I get bootstrap values (percentages) instead of posterior probabilities--which to my understanding is common to report posterior probabilities when displaying BI trees. I looked around in all of the menu options on MEGA X, and can't seem to find anything that will REconvert the "bootstrap" percentages back into decimal format. Any suggestions???
I am trying to sequence thru the trnH-psbA intergenic spacer region in my plant taxa. But, it has homopolymer/mononucleotide runs of 10 or more T's or A's. I get amplification products, but get really bad sequence reads downstream of these mononucleotide repeats of >10 Thymines or Adenines. I'm stuck! Anyone have any suggestions???
