Images

A Saildrone Explorer in the harbor being towed out onto Lake Erie for the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys on July 14, 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer being towed on Lake Erie at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer in the harbor being towed out onto Lake Erie for the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys on July 14, 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer being towed through the harbor in Erie, PA at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer being towed in the harbor in Erie, PA at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer in the harbor before its launch on Lake Erie for the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer being towed on Lake Erie at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

A Saildrone Explorer being towed through the harbor in Erie, PA at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

Austin Waag performing radio-telemetry at Glacier Point with Half Dome in the background, as part of a project tracking bats in Yosemite National Park.

A still image taken from a USGS Flow Photo Explorer camera (Pl_06.5) shows isolated pools in a small stream in Shenandoah National Park.

Butterflies and moths are submitted to the KS WSC for the Lepidoptera Research Collection Citizen Science Project. Julie Dietze holds a sphinx moth received from Texas. 

A Project ROAM (Rapid and Other Methods for Assessment and Monitoring) crew collecting vegetation data at a complex plot with over 40 unique species. 

Biologists set up a triple-high mist net to capture bats with El Capitan, one of Yosemite's most iconic rock formations, in the background, as part of a study to track bats in Yosemite.

RAMPS and NPS host South African National Park scientist, Dr. Mmoto Masubelele, for field visits to exchange information on restoration and climate adaptation strategies. From left to right: Seth Munson, Dr. Mmoto Masubelele, park biologist Mark Szydlo. Photo by Seth Munson (USGS).

Western bumble bee on a Geranium viscossium (sticky purple geranium) flower in Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo taken by USGS field crew in July 2023.

Western bumblebee on a yarrow flower in Glacier National Park, Montana. 

The USGS provides science to understand, protect, restore, and solve problems in the world around us, and that includes interconnected communities of living things called ecosystems. 

A long-term fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing monitoring array installed along Cement Creek near Silverton CO to track acid mine influenced groundwater discharge to the creek over time. 

Western bumble bee on a common yarrow flower in Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo taken by USGS field crew in July 2023. 

This site south of Rock Springs in Wyoming represents an intact sagebrush ecosystem. It has not been burned or invaded by exotic annual grasses. Undisturbed sagebrush steppe has bare ground between shrubs which helps to limit the spread of wildfire. When cheatgrass invades fires can grow larger.

The grizzly bear distribution represents the estimated geographic extent of occupied range of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population. The images show a comparison of their estimated geographic extent, with a 3-fold increase from 1990 (23,361 km² or 9,020 mi²) to 2022 (70,101 km² or 27,066 mi²).