Images

Many noxious, invasive species infest our nation’s wetlands. One example is a new type of phragmites, a wetlands grass from Europe that has rapidly spread across the continent, altering soil, producing copious seeds, and resulting in dense stands of mostly one-plant – phragmites – stands.

This lichen is Parmelia sulcata, a common species in North America.   Lichens -- which are often mistaken for moss -- are unusual plant-like organisms that are actually symbioses of fungi, algae and bacteria living together.

Acoustic receivers detect and process the acoustic signal from the telemetry tags telling the tracking crew which direction to go to find the fish, and even which fish it is.

Acipenseriformes (sturgeon and paddlefish) larvae are somewhat easy to spot in the field thanks to their large yolk sac (yellow arrow).  However, a microscope is necessary to differentiate between the two. 

An endangered Burrowing Owl near a site in Cape Coral, FL.

Scientists hike up the Little Colorado River to assist in installing remote PIT tag readers to more efficiently keep track of native, endangered fish populations.

Blue Heron.

Angled shot of butterfly on a flower.

Hydroacoustic mapping boat R/V Lucien Brush mapping habitat during high water in the North Overton Bottoms Side-channel chute.

USGS employees Beau Griffith (left) and Becky Welly (right) hold a telemetered pallid sturgeon they recaptured in a trammel net.  The wooden object with 2 white buoys to the right of Welly is call a "Buck" or a "Mule" and is used to pull the end of the net along in the current.

USGS microbiology technician Brenda Berlowski enters an animal isolation room.

A prairie dog stands on alert. The USGS National Wildlife Health Center works to identify, track, and prevent wildlife disease. Better protection of prairie dogs against plague would minimize the risk of disease transfer to endangered black-footed ferrets, aid in prairie dog conservation, and protect public health.

A section of the Upper Green River Valley in western Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, showing different ecosystems (such as forests, wetlands, and aquatic habitats) whose capacities for carbon storage and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be assessed by the USGS.

Mikhail Malin, visiting IBIW scientist, prepares to deploy a high-resolution sidescan sonar towfish below Bagnell Dam on the Osage River.  The CERC and IBIW collaborated with the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Missouri to assess the distribution of paddlefish below the dam using telemetry, sidescan sonar, and DIDSON.

Nine-year-old pallid sturgeon wait in holding tanks for their turn to be evaluated by biologists at CERC.  More than 100 pallid sturgeon made the trip from Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery to Columbia on a snowy December day.

Dr. Sasha Reed, research ecologist with the USGS, was one of 94 recipients of the 2011 PECASE award.

The Golden Gate Bridge seen through Racoon Strait in the San Francisco Bay, California.

Creosote bush shrublands are one of the driest Sonoran Desert plant communities; the creosote bush and white ratany are the dominant plants; a USGS study showed that their coverage is likely to decrease with forecasted climate change because of less winter precipitation and more aridity.

Picture of Geyser Valley in Olympic National Park in Northwest Washington.

Katie Pugliares and Michael O'Neil with the New England Aquarium preparing a harbor seal carcass for necropsy.

Dead harbor seal found in New England in 2011.