Images

Native and invasive plants in desert southwest.  

Water sampling on the pontoon of a seaplane in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

Photomontage of multiple pictures showing environmental changes including within wildlife and urban environments

A Chinese firebelly newt (Cynops orientalis), the salamander species recently found to be infected with the spring viraemia of carp virus, or SVCV.

Dissected guano pellet showing antennae, eyes, and body fragments of midges. 

Picture of boys fishing off rocks in the middle of a river with a beautiful background

Reports of golden eagle mortality linked to wind energy facilities are cause for concern especially when coupled with the knowledge that golden eagles move great distances between breeding and wintering areas. Mortalities at a particular wind energy facility can consequently affect breeding populations of golden eagles at local and continent-wide scales.

Scientists sample a rough-skinned newt for the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, at a pond near Portland, Oregon. Bsal is decimating wild salamander populations in Europe and could emerge in the U.S. thro

Invasive black and white tegu lizards (Salvator merianae). USGS is working on development of tools for the detection and capture of invasive reptiles in 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. 

Person taking data in a healthy dryland grassland with dark biocrusts between bunchgrasses and cacti in Utah.

The eagle in the foreground with the wide white tail band is a golden eagle. The other eagles are two adult and one Basic II bald eagles.

Student volunteers are trained to scan historic library materials. The materials can be complex, consisting of multiple parts.

Tufted Puffin, the species most affected by a recent seabird die-off in the Pribilof Islands, AK. Near Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Three of the nine wild sea otter populations in the U.S. are federally listed as threatened. In California, USGS biologists have lead an annual population census to assess the local populations' recovery, working closely with state agencies and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

USGS scientist Jayne Belnap examines instrumentation to measure photosynthetic rates of biocrusts.

Don Ashton uses radio telemetry to track a federally threatened Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa). Data provide information on resource use, movement patterns, and overwintering

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.