UH Hilo’s ʻElala Biodiversity Lab: A look into the DNA of an island laboratory

Posted on February 25, 2026March 2, 2026 by Staff

Many of the research projects at the ʻElala Biodiversity Lab revolve around conservation, looking at native and invasive species and how they interact with the ecosystems around them.

Professor stands next to poster presentation on "Unraveling the webs of time: Hawaiian spider biodiversity discovery from DNA metabarcoding." — Assistant Professor of Biology Natalie Graham, founder of the ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory at UH Hilo, stands next to a conference poster on a DNA research project conducted at the lab. (Courtesy photo)

By Samantha Dane/UH Hilo Stories.

The ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo was founded in 2023 by a newly arrived molecular ecologist, Natalie Graham, to give her a home-base to start up a research program and teach. Prior to UH Hilo, Graham studied Hawaiian arthropod diversification and ecosystem interactions at University of California, Berkeley.

“Coming to UH Hilo was a good match,” says Assistant Professor of Biology Graham.

Graham’s primary research is in terrestrial arthropods found in the Hawaiian archipelago, which she studies to better understand what action should be taken to mitigate human impacts in the most vulnerable ecosystems. She does this through investigating how the structure of biological communities change over time, in particular, how anthropogenic changes are altering species interactions and potentially driving communities past ecological tipping points.

Learn more about Assistant Professor Graham’s research.

Natalie, with gloves, holds two vials in a forest setting. — Natalie Graham holds vials used to collect samples of environmental DNA from water collected in fallen hapuʻu tree ferns. The water contains mosquito larva of the species *Culex quinquefasciatus*, which is a vector for the pathogen causing avian malaria, a major threat to Hawaiʻi’s native bird fauna. (Courtesy photo)

ʻElala, the name of her lab, is the ʻolelo Hawaiʻi (Native Hawaiian) word for insect, which is the focus of the lab’s research activities. The lab’s main purpose is to study the huge range of arthropods (which include insects) found in Hawaiʻi. Graham’s specialty is molecular ecology, using trace samples of organismal DNA left behind in the environment to reconstruct a moving image of how biological communities throughout the island are changing over space and time.

Organismal ecology studies how organisms interact with their environment to survive and reproduce. Many of the research projects being done at the ʻElala Biodiversity Lab revolve around conservation, looking at native and invasive species and how they interact with the ecosystems around them. The investigative approach is rooted in community ecology, though, taking into account the entire biological community and not just the arthropods.

“Everything is kind of interconnected,” says Graham. “And I think that if we try to understand some of those relationships between the organisms and their environment and the organisms and each other, it helps us to piece together this picture of ecosystem health and how they’re changing.”

While this approach — taking random DNA from the wild and turning it into an accurate representation of an entire biological community — may seem like scientific sorcery at first, in practice the science behind it is as fascinating as it is involved.

“It’s CSI-like for insects.”

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule that carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth, and reproduction of all known organisms, including viruses. Environmental DNA, or eDNA, refers to anything left behind by organisms (that isn’t direct tissue) as it moves through and interacts with the environment.

“They’re leaving DNA behind everywhere, especially insects and arthropods,” says Graham. That means DNA traces are left on leaf and flower surfaces, tree bark, soil, and even in stream and pond water. Members of the ʻElala Biodiversity Lab are responsible for collecting these eDNA samples in the field using a variety of tactics depending on the target species and project at hand.

Three women in rain gear, near forest line. — Assistant Prof. Natalie Graham, at right, takes a selfie with two students on a wet and rainy day in Olaʻa Forest Reserve located in Volcano, Hawaiʻi Island, as the team sets up arthropod traps for the ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory’s “Bugs from Space” collaborative National Science Foundation grant with UC Berkeley and University of Maryland. (Courtesy photos)

Tarp covering a section of grass on the side of a fishpond lined with coconut trees. — A Townes style ground malaise trap set up at Kaumaui loko iʻa (fishpond) to passively sample flying and crawling arthropods during a survey of beneficial and pest insect species for Prof. Graham’s insect systematics and ecology class.

Person working a line attached to a tree. — Graduate student Samantha Al-Bayer demonstrates the environmental DNA (eDNA) collection method of tree rolling to target insect and fungal species associated with ʻōhiʻa lehua.

A line of coconut trees banded with white material. — Sterile gauze is wrapped around the trunks of coconut palms in West Hawaiʻi Island as the collaborative team at ‘Elala Lab, U.S. Geological Survey, and community-based Big Island Invasive Species Committee test a novel method for capturing environmental DNA from the coconut rhinoceros beetle.

Natalie removes a beetle from the netting. — Assistant Prof. Graham inspects a coconut rhinoceros beetle taken from a trap in Kona. The trap is part of an ongoing effort to monitor and stop the spread of the highly invasive beetles, a major pest attacking coconut palms.

Student in lab holding a beaker filled with solution. — Back at the lab, a student undertakes the eDNA purification process so the solution can be used for analysis. Then the real magic happens. (Courtesy photo)

Back at the lab, the eDNA undergoes a purification process so it can be used for analysis. Then the real magic happens.

“You don’t actually need that much of a region of DNA in order to tell species apart or even populations,” Prof. Graham says. “It’s CSI-like for insects.”

Drawing from an extensive catalog of species and their DNA, the researchers can match up the eDNA with its respective organism.

Of course, identifying species in this way requires a preexisting record of what species the eDNA samples belong to. Unlike vertebrates, who are more widely studied, it’s not uncommon for arthropod eDNA to be identified without knowing the exact species. One project underway at the lab is to build a reference library for those insects that are not yet described species; the ongoing project is using the eDNA of these unknown arthropods to find and describe them out in the wild to add to this knowledge base.

“If you don’t put it in the database yourself, then you won’t be able to match to it with 100 percent certainty,” says Prof. Graham.

Using eDNA analysis in this way allows researchers to get a comprehensive idea of which species, and how many of each, are in a sampled area, and, with enough samples, how that’s changing over time. Using this sampling technique allows for detailed analysis of species identity and density, opening up endless possibilities to other projects carried out in the lab.

Teaching the art of being scientists and stewards in a sacred place

As a teacher as well as researcher, an important aspect of Prof. Graham’s job is bringing students into the often hard-to-access forests that she studies.

“Some of these places, they feel like they’re a little bit locked away,” she says. “I try to do field trips to actually take students (and) students that are working in the lab.”

Group of about 10 students and their professor pose in a forest setting. — Assistant Professor of Biology Natalie Graham (at left) with her insect systematics and ecology class in the fall of 2025 during a huakaʻi (journey) to the kīpuka along Kaumana Trail, Hawaiʻi Island. (Courtesy photo)

Part of bringing students to these wahi pana (sacred places) is to follow traditional Native Hawaiian protocol with an oli (chant) before entering, asking permission from the space to enter. Graham says her intent is to “help students who are maybe unfamiliar with the protocol, make it more normalized in their education.” This is part of an effort of the entire UH Hilo biology department to normalize Native Hawaiian protocol during and after students’ time at the university.

This goal of normalizing Hawaiian practices in classes and the lab is very much in line with the lab’s goal of using research to protect and conserve these places.

“Culture here is very much embedded in being a part of the land, we’re supposed to steward the land and take care of it,” says Graham. In this way, students are learning to be stewards just as much as scientists.

Collaboration with community and government agencies

Group of university students at a booth table filled with insect samples, while schoolchildren dressed in costumes enjoy the display. — UH Hilo students in Professor Graham’s classes and labs also participate in educational community outreach activities. Here, ʻElala Biodiversity Lab students show off the world of insects and spiders in a booth at the Carnival of Bugs, an educational event for schoolchildren held at UH Hilo’s ʻImiloa Astronomy Center. (Courtesy photo)

Using the ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory’s expertise in DNA analysis, Graham and her team welcome collaboration with land management agencies around the island to develop goals to better manage environmental resources.

“We’re trying to be available, like an open door, if someone has a question, we can provide a resource, we can provide partnership for figuring out the answer,” Prof. Graham says.

A recent example is a collaboration with the Big Island Invasive Species Committee and the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to monitor for the presence of coconut rhinoceros beetles on Hawaiʻi Island. In cases like these, Graham says the projects relate back to human health, too, as the coconut rhinoceros beetles nest in and destroy palms, taking away a food source for the community.

Student research, developing skills

There are a wide range of student research projects being conducted at the ʻElala Biodiversity Lab, from the effects of rapid ʻohiʻa death, which is caused by invasive fungi, to tracking uaʻu (seabird) population origins across the islands.

One project, headed by junior and biology major George Lang, is looking at what mosquitoes are feeding on to better understand them as disease vectors. By isolating and amplifying the DNA found within their bloodmeals, it reveals which birds they’re feeding on. Mosquitoes are also tested for the deadly avian malaria they transmit, which has played a major role in the rapid decline of many native honeycreepers. Lang says DNA sequencing is “a very effective way to get an understanding of a large population very quickly,” which is especially important considering the conservation applications of knowing where mosquitoes are spreading malaria.

Three women in a forest near roadway. — Field day photo with, from left, tropical conservation biology and environmental science graduate student Samantha Al-Bayer, undergraduate researcher Keleni Faʻanunu, and Assistant Professor Graham. (Courtesy photo)

Senior biology majors Soleil Rosenblum and Keleni Faʻanunu are working together at the lab on a project titled “Trophic interactions on a disease gradient” that involves collecting insects and eDNA using various techniques at several sites along Steinbeck Road in Hilo. The insects are used to find the community DNA of the sites, which provides an understanding of microbial relationships between elevation, area, and rapid ohiʻa death, and the eDNA is sequenced to track bird and arthropod populations, as opposed to more traditional sight-based surveys. Rosenblum says the lab is “the best thing that has ever happened to me” because it gives her the opportunity to learn hands-on, as opposed to only classroom lectures.

A common theme between students working on different projects are the skills they learn while conducting the research.

“Even though we’re working on bugs, (students) could go and work on whatever else with that same type of skills,” says Prof. Graham. “Students come with an interest in the lab and leave equipped with a whole host of wet lab and analysis skills making them highly valuable in the workforce.”