Images

Common Mergansers are sometimes called sawbills, fish ducks, or goosanders. The word “merganser” comes from the Latin and translates to “plunging goose”. Similar to Goldeneye ducks, mergansers usually nest in natural tree cavities.

The male Common Goldeneye performs a complex courtship display during winter and early spring. These diving ducks eat mostly aquatic invertebrates and fish and females nest in tree cavities.

Sea Lamprey at the Hammond Bay Biological Statioin in Millersburg, MI

Radio-collared female Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) in a high elevation red spruce (Picea rubens) stand on Whitetop Mountain, VA during winter of 2014. 

Radio-collared female Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) in a high elevation red spruce (Picea rubens) stand on Whitetop Mountain, VA during winter of 2014. 

Sanderling (Calidris alba) walking on sand, seen during field work in Iceland in 2014.

Cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii) on the Colville River Delta. Photo by Ryan Askren, USGS.

Glen Canyon Dam jet tubes releasing water into the Colorado River for a high flow experiment. The increase in flow of the Colorado River downstream of the dam mobilizes sand at the bottom of the river and that sand rebuilds sandbars in Grand Canyon.

To understand how changes in rainfall and temperature might affect coastal wetlands in the northern Gulf of Mexico, USGS researchers conducted field studies at 10 estuaries in five states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida). The fieldwork took place in a variety of coastal wetland types, including mangroves, marshes, and salt flats.

Series of daily sample bottles containing integrated water samples from the Elwha River, October 17, 2012 to November 9, 2012. Graphical overlay is the measured suspended sediment concentration in each sample bottle, showing the variability in sediment concentration during the time period shown.

A mated pair of Common Eider swim across a lake in northern Alaska.

Photography by Jeff Wasley.

Series of daily sample bottles containing integrated water samples from the Elwha River, October 17, 2012 to November 9, 2012.

This project is designed to assess the feasibility of "rescuing" specific genetic lineages of bull trout from likely extirpation in three imperiled major lake drainages in GNP, through translocation of drainage-specific stocks into lakes located above barrier falls within parental drainages.

Aerial photograph of the mouth of the Elwha River where it meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca during the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, Washington State, USA. Aerial assistance by LightHawk and plane piloted by Dr. Hunter Handsfield.

Aerial photograph of the former Lake Aldwell reservoir and the Elwha River 16 months following the removal of the Elwha Dam, Washington State, USA. Aerial assistance by LightHawk and plane piloted by Dr. Hunter Handsfield.

Aerial photograph of the former Lake Aldwell reservoir and the Elwha River 16 months following the removal of the Elwha Dam, Washington State, USA. Aerial assistance by LightHawk and plane piloted by Dr. Hunter Handsfield.

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.

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)