Images

Scientists collect alpine plant species and distribution data to complete a GLORIA site inventory on the summit of Seward Mountain, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Scientists use grids to collect alpine plant data according to GLORIA protocols on the summit of Bison Mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Researchers evaluate vegetation during a GLORIA alpine plant survey near the summit of Seward Mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Image of live, single-celled foram, Globorotalia truncatulinoides, viewed under a microscope and collected with a plankton net on the R/V Pelican. Its shell is made from Calcium carbonate and the spikes extensions are called rhizopodia.

A USGS/USFWS team working at a coastal marsh site near a surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) station at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Left to right, Tiffany Lane, Claudia Laurenzano, Laura Feher, Camille Stagg, Jena Moon, and Michael Osland. Taken via camera timer by the team, 10/3/2019. 

An ablation stake which began the summer below the surface of the snow is shown here in the fall, extending far above bare ice surface of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska. A USGS scientist carries a portable steam drill, used to install the stakes in the glacier.

Tree-ring analyses from Lassiter Swamp, located along a tributary of the Chowan River, indicate that cypress trees have occupied the site for at least 500 years. To extend the record even farther back in time, scientists from USGS, Duke University and East Carolina University are working together with students at C.S.

Researcher holds an ablation stake and winter snow probe during spring mass balance field work on Gulkana Glacier, AK.

Partners discuss seasonal drought experiments.

A cross section of ice-rich permafrost. Layers and areas of sediments are interspersed with frozen patches of ice.

Dense stands of Douglas-fir surround South Twin Lake in the Klamath bioregion of northwestern California.

Miriam Jones holding a peat core that was extracted from a thawed permafrost bog at the Alaska Permafrost Experiment (APEX) site at Bonanza Creek LTER, Alaska. The boundary between the formerly frozen permafrost plateau and thawed bog is visible in the peat stratigraphy, with the light-colored peat indicated thawed bog.

Map of Alaska showing probability (%) of change occurrence. Insets show fire boundaries from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Large Fire Database and Landsat 8 imagery (bottom right; 2016) north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Caption: Trees tipping over and dying as ice-rich permafrost thaws in the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

Burned, hollowed out base of a sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park

Photo shows USGS geologists obtaining microfossil and biomarker samples from the Calvert Formation at Scientists Cliffs. 

USGS scientist, Chris McNeil, measures and weighs an ice core extracted from Wolverine Glacier to determine the density of the firn layer.

A scientist prepares to extract a snow core from one of the Benchmark Glaciers. Cores are used to determine the density of the snow and ice on the surface of the glacier in order to determine the mass balance.

A USGS scientist testing drone technology to measure methane fluxes from thawing permafrost.

A coastal marsh site at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near St. Charles Bay, Texas. A surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) station is hidden beneath the marsh vegetation. The SET-MH is used to record changes in marsh surface elevation through time. Taken by William C. Vervaeke, 4/5/2018 (USGS).

A scientist wearing a mask, safety googles, and a cap breaks down a permafrost core using a paring knife to conduct aseptic sampling for DNA analysis.