Images

A drill rig in the Bakken oil field in Stark County, western North Dakota. 

Elk traveling across winter range in the northwestern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem near the Gardiner River in Yellowstone National Park, 2008.

Elk traveling on winter range in the northwestern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem after crossing the Madison River near Ennis, Montana, 2008.

A photo taken before the Great Works Dam was removed (likely in 2009), looking upstream from a boat just upstream of the Great Works Dam.

The kerchief over the bear's eyes protects it from dust and debris and reduces visual stimulation. The small tubing in its nose, known as a nasal cannula, delivers oxygen to the animal while it is tranquilized.

Researchers with IGBST have tranquilized the bear and prepare to lift it out of the trap and onto the tarp for data collection. Once on the tarp the bear is easier to move.

USGS researcher Craig Allen stands on the edge of Mesa Alta, amid diverse forest and woodland in the uplands of northern New Mexico; note some recently dead ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir in the field of view. Forest drought stress is strongly correlated with tree mortality from poor growth, bark beetle outbreaks, and high-severity fire.

This USGS file photo was taken at a USGS gaging station on the Passadumkeag River at Lowell, Maine (01035000) in 1915. The USGS collected streamflow at this location from 1915 through 1979. The photo shows an unknown hydrographer standing next to a chain gage. The chain gage was used by a local observer to make manual readings of water level. 

Whitish areas on this diseased sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) are lesions that result in detachment of arms from the central disc.

Hoffstadt Creek is one of the salmon release sights after being radio tagged. This picture is taken just downstream from the release sight after a fish release.

Photomicrograph depicting the siliceous frustules of fifty species of diatoms arranged within a circular shape. Diatoms form the base of many marine and aquatic food chains and upon death, their glassy frustules form sediments known as diatomaceous earth.

Photomicrograph depicting the siliceous frustulesof fifty species of diatoms arranged within a circular shape. Diatoms form the base of many marine and aquatic food chains and upon death, their glassy frustules form sediments known as diatomaceous earth.

The grey, coiled seashell of Olivella semistriata with the aperture (shell opening) facing up. Photograph taken 2002 or earlier.

A pair of Caracolus sagemon.

Colorful and coiled seashells of Olivella semistriata with the apertures (shell openings) facing up. Photograph taken 2002 or earlier.

A member of the USGS Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Working Group in Flagstaff, Ariz., monitors the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam.

Footprints made in muddy ash during Kilauea's 1790 eruption are reminders that people experienced the largest explosive eruption in Hawai‘i in 1,000 years. More than 80, and possibly several hundred, people were killed by the eruption soon after the footprints were made.

A herder moves cattle through a barren landscape in eastern Africa.

This adolescent chick, hatched and raised at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, is one of ten whooping cranes being released in Louisiana in February 2011. It is a milestone for the state and for the birds, which have not lived in the state since the 1950s.

This adolescent chick, hatched and raised at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, is one of ten whooping cranes being released in Louisiana in February 2011. It is a milestone for the state and for the birds, which have not lived in the state since the 1950s.

An invasive species, the spiny water flea, is likely a primary driver of changes in Lake Huron's food web over the past decade.