Images

Researcher Carol Hasburgh taking winter water chemistry samples on the Yukon River for a permafrost loss study. 

Whitefish drying on a fish rack in Pilot Station, AK, in the Yukon River Basin. 

Drilling to take water chemistry samples for permafrost study in the Yukon River Basin

Heading out to do field work for a permafrost loss study in the Yukon River Basin. 

A grizzly bear has cached an elk carcass in Grand Teton National Park. Scientists used DNA from hair samples collected from barbed wire to estimate whether the availability of carcasses associated with an elk hunting season resulted in temporary immigration of grizzly bears. 

Barred owls like this one were most strongly associated with patches of large hardwood and conifer trees in relatively flat areas along streams.  

An adult pallid sturgeon, an endangered species.

Karen Nelson (USFWS) acquiring geophysical data amidst a naturally occurring plant (Salicornia rubra) in northeastern Montana.

Old-growth ponderosa pine in the Monument Canyon Research Natural Area, New Mexico.

Non-native Cuban treefrogs have established a breeding population in New Orleans, Louisiana, the first such population on the U.S. mainland outside Florida. The treefrogs were discovered at the Audubon Zoo shortly after a shipment of palm trees from Florida were planted in the zoo's elephant enclosure in 2016.

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida.

The Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) initiated a study on how its water operations influence fishes in the Missouri River basin above Fort Peck Reservoir. Of utmost concern is the effect of these operations on the spawning success and recruitment of endangered pallid sturgeon.

Dead trees viewed from the Colony Mill Trail in Sequoia National Park, photographed in 2015 during severe drought in California.

Anna Ormiston and Jesi Hessong, student contractors with the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, or ARMI, display several discarded mylar balloon collected by field teams working in and around the Capital Region National Parks in the summer of 2015. They collected a total of 71 balloons.

Field sampling in the Hells Canyon Reservoir Complex, with Dr. M. Marvin-DiPasquale at the bow of the sediment collection boat. Photographer: D. Krabbenhoft.

A researcher on Sperry Glacier navigates to the next mass balance survey location.

A scientist is working to collect alpine insects by picking through moss below tiny, cold, alpine streams. This spot was below a small seep on a slope above a tributary to the Dry Fork, North of the Two Medicine area in Glacier National Park. 

Salt-encrusted remains of a southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida) as found in the dry lake bed of Elizabeth Lake, Los Angeles County, California. Note the heavy coating of evaporites on the carcass. Most living turtles collected in 2014 had similar but varying degrees of coatings on the head, limbs and shell.

Photograph of Elizabeth Lake in the fourth year of drought and two years after the Powerhouse Fire. Note salt encrustation of surface and small accumulations of water remaining in the foreground and background.

Almost all of the turtles living in a southern California lake died following a large fire and years of drought, according to a new USGS report.

A scientist from the University of California, Berkeley climbs a giant sequoia to measure its drought stress.

Determining aboveground biomass of sagebrush, grasses, and forbs is important for estimating fuel loads, measuring carbon storage, and assessing habitat quality in shrublands. Remote sensing may offer a more efficient alternative to common, labor intensive methods of measuring aboveground biomass that are difficult to apply across large areas.