Images

USGS Cooperative Research Unit graduate student Ambre Chaudoin monitors dissolved oxygen levels, pH, and temperature in endangered Devils Hole pupfish spawning habitat in Devils Hole.

The Faka Union Canal Weir #1 (Collier County, Florida) helps create a downstream hydrological haven for manatees. During the cold winter months, the right flow conditions can maintain a salinity gradient known as a halocline that traps warm water near the bottom of the residential canals at Port of the Islands.

Freshwater flowing over the Faka Union Canal Weir #1 near Port of the Islands, Collier County, Florida. During cold weather, freshwater flows here can maintain a downstream salinity gradient that creates a warm water refuge for manatees.

A manatee swims downstream from a weir in Faka Union Canal known to create a strong salinity gradient downstream.

USGS Sirenia Project researchers studying manatees in Florida.

Schools out !. Bus passing by largest Burr Oak in Missouri.

Songbird finding food for its young.

Plasma separated from the blood by centrifuge of a pallid sturgeon is carefully divided into 3 vials.  The plasma samples are immediately frozen for laboratory analysis. 

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.