Images

Aerial photograph showing the mouth of the Elwha River, Washington State, USA. Aerial assistance by LightHawk and plane piloted by Dr. Hunter Handsfield.

Researchers monitoring sandbars on the Colorado River, in Grand Canyon National Park. USGS photo, public domain.

Lindsay VanSomeren (graduate student at University of Alaska Fairbanks) collects forage samples in the foothills of the Brooks Range off the Dalton Highway, North Slope of Alaska.

Walruses are very social animals and like to be in constant contact with other walruses. Photo taken during USGS research efforts permitted under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit No. MA801652-3

The coastal walrus haulouts that form during periods of sea ice scarcity in the Chukchi Sea are composed primarily of adult female walruses and young, as well as some adult male walruses.

 (Photo taken during USGS research efforts permitted under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit No. MA801652-3)

A close up of a female walrus resting after entering the haulout.  Sand from the beach is evident on her tusks.

(Photo taken during USGS research efforts permitted under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit No. MA801652-3)

Thousands of walruses gathered to rest on the shore near the Alaskan coastal community of Point Lay during September of 2013 after sea ice disappeared from their offshore foraging grounds in the eastern Chukchi Sea.

(Photo taken during USGS research efforts permitted under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit No. MA801652-3)

A transmitter tag (left) is being deployed by a USGS Wildlife Biologist (far right).

Thousands of walruses gathered to rest on the shore near the Alaskan coastal community of Point Lay during September of 2013 after sea ice disappeared from their offshore foraging grounds in the eastern Chukchi Sea.

Thousands of walruses gathered to rest on the shore near the Alaskan coastal community of Point Lay during September of 2013 after sea ice disappeared from their offshore foraging grounds in the eastern Chukchi Sea.

(Photo taken during USGS research efforts permitted under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit No. MA801652-3)

Blueberry plant with berries in fall colors.

Wildlife Biologist Tyrone Donnelly searches the shoreline from a skiff in Izembek Lagoon while conducting avian influenza surveillance. Pacific black brant, seen flocking in the background, stage within the refuge each fall to take advantage of the abundance of eel grass as forage.

Neal Pastick – lead author of the study – investigating erosion along Alaska’s Arctic coastline near the village of Kaktovik. Permafrost-dominated coasts of Alaska have drastically changed as the result of coastal transgression and storm-surge flooding which can result in the loss of cultural sites and damage to infrastructure.  Photo by M.

A spring fed stream in the Two-Medicine drainage of Glacier National Park is one of 2 new locations for the western glacier stonefly (Zapada glacier).

A macrophotography image showing a native bee pollinating a native flower. 

Early, in the spring it is easy to see some furry insects flying and hovering just above ground.

When looking for a place to set up a capture location, biologists look for existing bear sign such as scratches on trees and bear scat.  Sometimes traps are set in areas that have no obvious bear sign to determine if indeed bears are present.

Scientists sample for alpine insects in streams like this near Blackfoot Glacier in Glacier National Park. Alpine streams environments in the northern Rocky Mountains are especially vulnerable to climate change due to rapid warming resulting in loss of glaciers and snowpack.

This common loon has been marked with a satellite transmitter and geolocator tag.

A large strand of non-native prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola) grows near a well pad in Dunn County, ND.

A stand of field sow thistle (yellow flowers; Sonchus arvensis), Canada thistle (purple flowers; Cirsium arvense), and Kentucky bluegrass (grass; Poa pratensis), all of which are non-native and growing near an oil well pad in Mountrail County, ND.