Images

Michelle Leung and Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

The USGS provides science to understand, protect, restore, and solve problems in the world around us, and that includes interconnected communities of living things called ecosystems. 

USGS and FWS researchers collect sediment cores from Lake Layman (Kamole) to reconstruct vegetation history, nutrient cycling related to bird populations, and climate change over the Holocene.

The Maurepas Swamp of southeastern Louisiana is a mostly flooded cypress tupelo swamp.

Word cloud of science keywords from the USGS Climate Research and Development Program. Larger words were submitted more often and from multiple projects whereas smaller words were submitted less frequently. Words in the word cloud, listed in order from largest (used most often) to smallest (used least often) and the number of times each were submitted are below:

Word cloud of science keywords from the USGS Climate Research and Development Program. Larger words were submitted more often and from multiple projects whereas smaller words were submitted less frequently. Words in the word cloud, listed in order from largest (used most often) to smallest (used least often) and the number of times each were submitted are below:

The tree rings in this whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) cross-section provide a view back in time. Scientists study the patterns of tree ring growth, scars, and wood coloration to determine how long the tree lived, record changes in climate, and even track past fires, insect attacks, and earthquakes!

Both sediment traps secured on board the deck of the research vessel after being pulled out of the ocean water. 

Buoys surfaced and floating in the ocean waiting to be collected onto the research vessel.

Dunking transducer being lowered into the water in order to communicate with the acoustic release at depth.

All three buoys secured on boat deck waiting to be redeployed with marine sediment traps. 

Dr. Julie Richey and Caitlin Reynolds replacing batteries in the sampler onboard R/V Pelican.

Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) instrument getting ready to be launched. The bag of Styrofoam cups being attached to the side is part of science outreach that Dr. Julie Richey does with elementary school kids.

Coastal Louisiana marsh as viewed driving down to LUMCON (the Louisiana University Marine Consortium).

Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON) building with marsh in the foreground.

View of the R/V (research vessel) Pelican from the dock at the Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON).

USGS scientists measuring infiltration rates, with minidisk infiltrometers, 2 years after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire. The California chaparral landscape in the foreground was severely burned in the fire.

Nukuhou coastal wetland. A tidal wetland with grey mangroves (Avicennia marina) and salt marsh threatened by sea level rise. At Ohiwa Harbor, North Island, New Zealand.

Sunrise along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz, California. Credit: Ariana Sutton-Grier, USGS.

Aerial view of shrub mangrove forest in Rangaunu Harbour expanding into coast salt marsh and threatening to move into agricultural land because of sea level rise.

Aerial view of the Rangaunu Harbour mangrove forest in Northland, New Zealand.