This page starts the Keys to Aquatic Biota of the Hawaiian Islands and provides orientation to other available identification keys and guides of possible interest. For the subject dichotomous key, starting is accomplished in one of two ways:

1) a taxonomic approach, beginning at the group (higher order taxon) that you are interested in (such as snails or fishes or aquatic plants); or even just [Animal] or [Plant] or [I don't know what it is?]


2) as a dichotomous key with the following as the first couplet:

	~~~~~	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	1a		Specimen is obviously an animal { showing movement and reactions characteristic of animals, or is easily recognized as an animal	[10]
	1b		Specimen is not an animal { OR does not appear to be capable of movement (swimming, walking, crawling), OR is not readily recognized as an animal (although it may well be)	[2]
	~~~~~	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES: The blue arrow () indicates selecting this link will take you to another page. You can jump directly to this START PAGE by clicking on the icon on the front cover page.

For identifying various groups of biota found in the Hawaiian Islands (and Guam), CPIE offers the following developed keys. Associated with each is a bibliography of additional resources.

• Key to the Grasses and Sedges of the Hawaiian Islands
  A dichotomous key covering most grasses and sedges in Hawai‘i.
• Key to the Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes of the Island of Guam
  A dichotomous key covering most of the grasses found on Guam; integrated with the Grasses of Hawai‘i key above.
• A MultiAccess Key to Grasses in Hawai‘i and Guam.
  A polychotomous key to Hawaiian grasses.
• A MultiAccess Key to Sedges and Rushes in Hawai‘i.
  A polychotomous key to Hawaiian sedges and rushes.
• A MultiAccess Key to Vines Found in the Hawaiian Islands.
  A polychotomous key to Hawaiian vines and vine-like plants.

The following keys are not CPIE projects:

• Stream macroalgae of Hawai‘i.
  An identification guide to the common genera by A.R. Sherwood (2004), University of Hawai‘i [PDF document].
• Key to the Ferns of the Hawaiian Islands.
  A Lucid multi-access key by A. L. Vernon and T. A. Ranker; University of Hawai‘i.