Images

Scientists use mealworms to train two lesser scaup ducklings to peck at a target after tones are played at certain frequencies. This species was studied as part of research by the USGS and partners to identify the frequencies at which sea ducks can hear underwater.

The iconic Sonoran Desert is home to many species of cactus, vascular plants, and wildlife, including the giant saguaro, cholla, and prickley pear cacti seen here. Plants and animals have adapted to living in such a harsh dry environment.

A common eider duck. This species was studied as part of research by the USGS and partners to identify the frequencies at which sea ducks can hear underwater. The research can help inform decisions on the use of sound devices to deter ducks from fishing gillnets and other threats.

Two common eider ducklings. This species was studied as part of research by the USGS and partners to identify the frequencies at which sea ducks can hear underwater.

Scenic landscape from Hells Canyon Reservoir, Idaho

The Snake River is the largest tributary of the Columbia River. It drains over 108,000 square miles in mainly Idaho and portions of Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The climate of much of the Snake River watershed is arid or semi-arid and spring snowmelt contributes substantially to the river’s flow.

Pelicans on a rock, observed by the USGS Western Ecological Center Seabird Studies team.

Fog surrounds the USGS Research Vessel Arcticus as it comes into port at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

A helicopter was needed to get USGS scientists up to one of their high elevation weather stations for repairs, when the station stopped working during the Sprague Fire, 2017, Montana. 

A helicopter was needed to get USGS scientists up to one of their high elevation weather stations for repairs, when the station stopped working during the Sprague Fire, 2017, Montana. 

Northern Cascades landscape.

USGS WERC researcher Julia Ersan gets prepared to release a hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) after capture and examination. USGS researchers are conducting multiple projects to learn about the ecology of Western bats, including long distance migrants like the hoary bat.

Jazmyn Bernard, an undergraduate student in the School of Renewable Natural Resources, dredges oysters in Sister Lake, Louisiana. Across coastal areas of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in significant ecological injury and over $8 billion directed to restoration activities.

Taken 94 years apart, these side by side photographs of river mile 91.7 (looking upstream) show the increase in vegetation along the Colorado River corridor after the opening of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. F.C. La Rue (1923 photo) on left; H.C. Fairley and A.H. Fairley (2017 USGS photo) on right.

Dr. Erin Muths (ARMI scientist, USGS) sampling frogs at a field site on Mt. Evans, Colorado.

American pika in the Northern Cascades. American pikas occupy talus slopes in mountain ecosystems throughout western North America.

Amelia DuVall is a seabird ecologist and a member of the Quantitative Conversation Lab at the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Amelia's taking samples of a Scripps’ murrelet chick.

Iiwi with small radio transmitter attached to help track the bird's movement through the forest

This single-celled freshwater algae wasa collected as part of the first-ever study of the green algae family called desmids in Florida’s Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, in the northern Everglades. USGS biologist Barry H.

The San Rafael grasslands are a diverse ecosystem in southern Arizona along the U.S./Mexico border region, a part of the Madrean Archipelago ecoregion.

Measuring the wing length of a banded Iiwi