Images

Elk in the Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming. The USGS and partners study the effects of climate change on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

Hyperbaric system used to house and expose larval bullfrogs to elevated dissolved CO2 in water for 24-hour exposure period. Experiments were conducted at USGS Leetown Science Center in Kearneysville, WV. NPS Biologist Dr.

USGS scientist Dave Brandt holds a captured whooping crane while Dr. Barry Hartup with the International Crane Foundation assesses the bird's health before marking.

USGS scientist Robert Al-Chokhachy places a pit tag in a trout to track movement.

USGS avalanche researcher evaluates avalanche debris in Glacier National Park, Montana.

A skier stand next to avalanche debris in Glacier National Park, 5/5/2011.

A stretch of Fall River in Wyoming, surrounded by trees, outside of Yellowstone National Park.

A researcher stands in front of a large wet slab avalanche debris deposit in Glacier National Park, Montana. The start zone and fracture line can be seen near the top of the ridge in the upper middle part of the image.

Snow removal operators work carefully to remove a large accumulation of avalanche debris on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. 

It requires skill and heavy machinery to remove avalanche debris along the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. In this image, road crews are removing snow that was at least 20 feet deep from the Rim Rock area near Logan Pass along the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park.

A dragonfly sits among prairie grasses at a USGS research site in the Williston Basin where scientists are looking at the impacts of oil well brine contamination on prairie pothole wetland communities.

Line of bull elk moving across field with snow-covered Wyoming hills in the background. 

Close up of wolf eyes

A meltwater stonefly larva (Lednia tumana) sits on a cobbled snow fed stream in Glacier National Park. The species is threatened by climate warming induced glacier and snow loss and has been petitioned for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act due to climate-change-induced habitat loss.

On Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park, ice from the glacier is breaking up and melting at a rapid rate.  Cold, glacier fed waters provide crucial habitat for native aquatic species such as trout, and as the ice is disappearing, so are the ideal habitats to sustain native ecosystems. 

Blackfoot Glacier in Glacier National Park - 2009

Blackfoot-Jackson 2009 color

Avalanche debris fills a drainage along Going-to-the-Sun Road near Triple Arches. 5/21/2009

Road plows begin removing wet slab avalanche debris on Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, 2009.

Regular avalanche activity keeps this path clear of trees. Snowy peaks of Glacier National Park in the background.