Images

Laysan albatross and Bonin petrel chick, two seabird species especially vulnerable to sea-level rise and sudden flooding on low-lying islands.

Location: Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Boinin petrel chick, a subterranean nesting seabird especially vulnerable to sea-level rise.

Location: Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

A Black-capped Chickadee with a beak that has grown long and curved down. Avian keratin disorder (AKD) is a disease characterized by debilitating beak overgrowth and other abnormalities of keratinized tissues. Affected birds have difficulty feeding and preening and may suffer high rates of mortality.

A drilling rig for shale gas development take at night from an overlook on Route 6 in Bradford County Pennsylvania.

Ticks spread the widest variety of diseases that are harmful to humans, including Lyme disease. This image shows an adult female blacklegged tick, or deer tick.

Sample bottle carousel from automated ISCO pump sampler deployed on the Elwha River, Washington to obtain suspended sediment samples.

Myotis septentrionalis, northern myotis (Vespertilionidae) with growth of Geomyces destructans clearly evident.

Parasitic mouth of the invasive sea lamprey

The red-cockaded woodpecker is a federally listed species that declined in the southeastern United States from approximately 1.6 million cooperative breeding groups to less than 3,500 groups due to loss and degradation of habitat and fire suppression.

Clark's grebe sitting on a nest at Thermalito Afterbay, California.

Red-breasted Merganser pair in North Slope of Alaska

Left: USGS Employee L. Windham-Myers showing a surface water sample collected in acid-cleaned mason jar (deployed for 24 hours) for a mercury study conducted at the Cosumnes River Nature Preserve (CA).  Photographer: M. Marvin-DiPasquale. Date: 10/29/2014.

An Appalachian Mountain Stream in the Spring. Photographed by Samuel H Austin

USGS Water towers at Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

USGS National Wildlife Health Center laboratory technician preparing avian samples for avian influenza testing.

Cannibalistic morph Barred Tiger Salamander Closeup, Jamestown, ND. Perhaps the rarest barred tiger salamander morphotype is the "cannibal" morph. Cannibal morphs are typically larvae and are distinguished by their disproportionally larger heads and  pronounced vomerine teeth.

Cannibal morph Barred Tiger Salamander larvae in a bucket of typical morphs larvae, Kidder County, ND.

Barred Tiger Salamander larva with typical larva in its mouth, Kidder County, ND. 

This image is of invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) growing on the banks of the Colorado River. 

A mountain bluebird eats a giant mistletoe berry in an ash tree in Sedona, Arizona (Oak Creek).  These bluebirds, and many other types of birds, rely on mistletoe berries for sustenance. As a result, they also help distribute the mistletoe seeds.

Students from Hickman High School’s biology club ask questions during an educational tour at the Columbia Environmental Research Center (Columbia, MO).