Images

Aerial view showing the intense greenup of restoration plots in the lower Colorado River Delta following the 2014 Minute 319 pulse flow.

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 block print of a Myotis bat species by Kate Aitchison, done through a RISD/USGS internship with the Southwest Biological Science Center, 2015.

USGS soil scientist Travis Nauman records vegetation data on decommissioned well pad.

USGS scientist Jessica Mikenas collects surface soil pH data on decommissioned well pad.

USGS soil scientist Travis Nauman records vegetation data on decommissioned well pad.

USGS soil scientist Travis Nauman examines biological soil crust communities near an abandoned well pad during field work.

Moenkopi Wash, stream gage # 09401400 near Tuba City, AZ. This photo, taken in 2015, is a match to a historic image taken in 1941 of a man on a bridge at the same location. This photo shows extensive vegetation encroachment and channel narrowing of Moenkopi Wash. Photo by David Dean, USGS, SBSC.

A type of aquatic insect called a stonefly (family Perlidae), in its larval stage, from the Green River just downstream of Fontenelle Dam, near Kemmerer, Wyoming (May 10, 2015).

Sampling invertebrates downstream of Flaming Gorge Dam, on the Green River near Dutch John, Utah, May 8, 2015.

In drylands, short-term extreme droughts can have profound ecosystem effects. In this study, we are examining the impacts of extreme seasonal drought on grassland communities of the Colorado Plateau & recovery from drought.

This repeat photograph is a match to a historic image taken in 1965 in Canyonlands National Park, on Salt Creek just upstream from Peekaboo Arch.

Moenkopi Wash, looking upstream, stream gage # 09401400 near Tuba City, AZ. This photo, taken in 2015, is a match to a historic image taken in 1941 taken in the same location. This photo shows extensive vegetation encroachment and channel narrowing of Moenkopi Wash. Photo by David Dean, USGS, SBSC.

People relax on a raft floating through a calm section of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon

A river guide rows her raft through a big rapid in Grand Canyon. Muddy water suggests recent precipitation and tributary flooding along this dam-regulated section of the Colorado River.

River guide rows a raft through Grand Canyon on a Partners in Science trip with Grand Canyon Youth

A panoramic photo of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Photo by Mike Duniway, Southwest Biological Science Center, USGS.

Active oil and gas pad on Bureau of Land Management lands near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

A map from Federal Register, Determination of Threatened Status for the Western Distinct Population Segment of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), showing the historic distribution of western yellow-billed cuckoo populations.

A Sonora Mud Turtle (Kinosternon sonoriense) basks in the sun at Montezuma Well, AZ. Kinosternon sonoriense are found only in aquatic habitats in the southwestern United States and northwestern México. They are listed on the IUCN Red List and some subspecies are listed as critically imperiled. Photo by Charles Drost, USGS, SBSC.