Images

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)

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

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.

(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)

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.

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.

Blueberry plant with berries in fall colors.

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.

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.

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

Pronghorn amidst the sagebrush-grassland interface in the Centennial Valley, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, southern Montana in 2013.

A glacier stonefly (Zapada glacier) on a snowy backdrop in Glacier National Park. The species is threatened by climate warming induced glacier and snow loss and has been petitioned for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act due to climate-change-induced habitat loss.

USGS biologists hand capture a male loggerhead sea turtle in Dry Tortugas National Park.

 The rare western glacier stonefly (Zapada glacier) is native to Glacier National Park and is seeking habitat at higher elevations due to warming stream temperature and glacier loss due to climate warming.