Images

Biological science aid, Marlee Malmborg, examines and records the viability of pallid sturgeon eggs at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

The Riverside East Solar Energy Zone is a vast area in southern California designated for large-scale solar development. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is charged with monitoring wildlife in this area to minimize the effects of the solar production on wildlife species.

The pike killifish, native to Mexico and Central America, was one of 13 nonnative fish species that biologists discovered during the two-day Fish Slam in Big Cypress National Preserve, March 22 and 23, 2017.

The sailfin catfish is one of 13 species of nonnative fish that biologists discovered during the Fish Slam in Big Cypress National Preserve, March 23, 2017.

USGS Western Ecological Research Center scientist Lesley DeFalco pollinates sun cup flowers for the Desert Restoration Program. In the experiment pictured here, USGS scientists pollinated individual sun cup flowers using a small paintbrush to help increase seed stocks to use in experiments throughout the Mojave Desert.

Width measurement for Pacific pocket mouse forefoot print on track card

This female Lesser Scaup is being swabbed to test for current infection with an avian influenza virus. By understanding prevelance among different species we can better understand the risk of transmisison across the wild bird - domestic poultry interface.

USGS scientist Nick Johnson isn’t afraid to get dirty. Here he is expressing green feces from a parasitic sea lamprey. DNA in the feces may help USGS scientists discover the identity of sea lamprey’s last meal. 

A long-tailed duck with an underwater speaker in the background. This is part of a study 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. Credit: Jonathan Fiely, USGS. Date: March 2017.

Cover photo for Shinneman, D.J., Welty, J.L., Arkle, R.S., Pilliod, D.S., Glenn, N.F., McIlroy, S.K., Halford, A.S., 2018, Fuels guide and database for intact and invaded big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites—User manual: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series Report 1048, p.

Honey bees play a major role in pollinating the world’s plants, including those we eat regularly. However, land-use changes that decrease flower abundance can affect bee health and pollination services.

Raccoon with a transmitter sits by the edge of the water in Suisun Marsh.

The desmid family of single-celled green algae are never found in abundance, says USGS biologist Barry Rosen. They inhabit the soft, slightly acidic water of wetlands that depend on rainwater, like Florida’s Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. They don’t “bloom” en masse, but their presence is an indicator of good water quality.

This remote area along the southern Idaho-Oregon border was affected by the 2015 Soda Fire, which burned nearly 400 square miles of sagebrush habitat important to many species of wildlife, as well as federal and private ranchlands.

Wastewater from oil production in the Williston Basin leaked from a pipeline, spilling into Blacktail Creek, North Dakota. Geochemical and biological samples were to identify geochemical signatures of spilled wastewaters as well as biological responses. 

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida. 

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida.

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida.

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida.

USGS and other scientists have studied in-depth alligator populations in Florida and Louisiana, but basic ecological knowledge is lacking for populations at the northern edge of their range.

A Louisiana black bear and her cubs up in a tree. USGS science on population demographics, population viability, and relocation efforts were used to inform the 2016 USFWS decision to remove the species from the Endangered Species List due to recovery.