Images

Goose wearing a GPS collar around its neck flies over water

Yellow Lipped Sea Krait, a type of sea snake, in the in the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji.

USGS biologist Jeffrey Kohl holds a Lesser Snow Goose marked with a GSM/GPS solar-powered neck collar.

Tess Forstner (USGS) and Kevin Buffington (USGS) set out on the Petaluma River, CA. Under the guidance of Dr. Karen Thorne, they are studying the effects of rising seas on Pacific coastal wetlands.

While heading out to a survey plot off of San Pablo Bay, an egret flies over the Petaluma River in the early morning.

Kevin Buffington (USGS) and Tess Forstner (USGS) measure the elevation of the Tule Slough wetlands, CA.

A female northern harrier (Circus cyaneus) gazes into the camera at Suisun Marsh, CA.

USGS scientist holds a young skunk with an ear tag ID and a lightweight GPS collar. The USGS is studying the movement patterns of skunks and raccoons in Suisun Marsh, CA to learn how they use different landscape features, like levee roads, to navigate to waterfowl nests.

Landscape shot of a mountain and the low elevation Mojave Desert.

Photo of a high elevation community in the northern Mojave that had burned at high severity 27 years before the picture was taken. Note that the cover of shrubs and trees has not returned to preburn levels and invasive grasses (red brome and cheatgrass Bromus tectorum) are a significant component of the ground cover.

Picture of a mid-elevation plant community in the Mojave Desert.

This is a low elevation community in the Mormon Mountains that had burned at moderate severity 12 years before the picture was taken. Note that shrubs are returning but are not at preburn levels, and invasive grasses (red brome and Mediterranean split grass Schismus barbatus) dominate the ground cover.

An unburned low elevation community in the central Mojave where the interspaces between shrubs have been filled in with a continuous layer of Mediterranean split grass Schismus barbatus. If a fire started here it would spread much more rapidly and be far more extensive than in a low elevation community where the interspaces are rocky or bare.

Photo of a passive acoustic monitor or "song meter." Scientists use these tools to study the distribution of seabirds without causing damage to sensitive habitat or disturbing the animals.

Image from a remote camera placed in a golden eagle nest in the Mojave Desert.  The parent is feed the chick a snake.  

Equipment used during a shore-counted portion of the annual range-wide sea otter census.  On the clipboard is a paper map, with sea otter locations, numbers, behavior and habitat recorded, as well as some other environmental variables.  The spotting scope is used to view sea otters that are far away, and binoculars are used to scan areas for otters.

USGS ecologist Lisa Allen carefully removes an endangered Least Bell's Vireo from a net. She and Principal Investigator Barbara Kus are studying these birds' migration patterns to provide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and international efforts with information to assist in species recovery.

USGS researchers Lisa Allen and Ryan Pottinger survey Miraflores Wash in Baja, California for Least Bell's Vireos, an endangered migratory bird.

This old male tortoise was experimentally translocated to a site that had been previously burned in wildfire to understand how tortoise grow and survive in habitat that is disturbed by fires.

USGS WERC scientist Emily (Emma) Kelsey at False Klamath Rock doing seabird monitoring research. 

USGS WERC scientist Jonathan Felis on False Klamath Rock doing seabird monitoring research.