Images

Pacific salmon make stunning migrations, swimming hundreds of miles from the ocean up inland rivers. After using all of their energy to make this incredible journey and spawn, the salmon start to decay.

Looking downstream at Underwood Creek at Juneau Boulevard at Elm Grove, Wisconsin in early Autumn. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/040870855

A railroad crossing over the East Branch Penobscot River located at a streamgage 01029500 in Grindstone, Maine

The Tongue River flowing past red canyon walls and green fields between Tongue River Reservoir and Birney, Montana.

Mainstem of Salmon River located in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska. Recent observations from Arctic Alaska indicate that waters draining permafrost landscapes may be susceptible to iron and carbon mobilization following thaw.

A low streamflow of 0.07 cubic feet/second (cfs) was measured at the U.S. Geological Survey Ipswich River streamgage (01102000) near Ipswich, MA on August 24, 2022. The concrete weir near the site is visible due to the low flows. The drainage area is 125 square miles. 

Five ways climate change affects reptiles.

Graphic created by VSFS intern, Louise Johansson.

Hydrologic technicians took a low flow measurement of the Byram River at Pemberwick, Connecticut (streamgage 01212500), when water levels ran low during the 2022 drought.

Coral reefs at Ofu, American Samoa, where USGS researchers are studying coral resilience to rising sea-surface temperatures, as well as the influence that submarine groundwater discharge may have on coral reef health.

Five ways climate change affects fish.

Infographic created by VSFS intern, Louise Johansson. Icons from Integration and Application Network | University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (umces.edu)

Prairie grassland flowers on the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center campus, with USGS silos pictured in the background. 

Habitat sampling at a restored reach at Underwood Creek at Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/04087088/

Aunt Betty Pond Inlet, Acadia National Park, Maine. Photo taken in the mid of summer.

Image of a western meadowlark, a grassland-dwelling bird species. Credit: USFWS, public domain

View east across Dixie Valley from the crest of the Stillwater Range, western Nevada. In the foreground are igneous rocks of an Oligocene caldera complex; bedrock in the Desatoya Mountains on the horizon is a slightly younger caldera complex. A major challenge for bedrock mapping is inferring what is in the subsurface between exposures like these.

The Bandelier Tuff near Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The Jemez Mountains, home to the Valles and Toledo calderas where the tuff originated, rise in the distance.  The tuff was hot and thick when it was deposited by caldera-forming eruptions 1.61 and 1.25 million years ago, and so it is welded in places, forming a dense and resistant rock.  USGS photo by M

A photograph taken near USGS 01034000 Piscataquis River at Medford, Maine on June 6, 2022 when the river was experiencing below average flow conditions as a result of a continued drought.

Tributary of Agashashok River located in the Noatak National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Recent observations from Arctic Alaska indicate that waters draining permafrost landscapes may be susceptible to iron and carbon mobilization following thaw.

An orange inflatable raft containing water sampling equipment sits on the shore of a recreational lake at Rapp Park and Recreation Area, Iowa.

A view of Isaac Hale Beach Park (also known as Pohoiki) in the lower Puna District on the Island of Hawai‘i. Lava from the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption, emplaced in late July 2018, is visible on the left. USGS photo taken during a helicopter overflight on May 12, 2022, by N. Deligne.

Mountain goat standing next to a mostly frozen, high-elevation lake in Glacier National Park, Montana.