Images

Scientists and volunteers collect other tree measurements in Dinosaur National Monument. On the left, tree diameter is measured and on the right, cone dispersion is measured. (Credit: Becky Brice, USGS)

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung prepares to drill tree cores in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Tree cores provide seasonal to centennial records of past precipitation and provide local to regional reconstructions of hydroclimate.

Michelle Leung and Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung and Geographer Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

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. 

USGS and FWS researchers collect sediment cores from Lake Layman (Kamole) to reconstruct vegetation history, nutrient cycling related to bird populations, and climate change over the Holocene.

USGS scientists are sampling vegetation cover and monitoring biomass recovery in grasslands after extreme drought on the Colorado Plateau, Utah. 

The Maurepas Swamp of southeastern Louisiana is a mostly flooded cypress tupelo swamp.

USGS Hydrologist Jamie Shanley collecting data from soil sensors in the woods of the Sleepers River Research Watershed. These data loggers collect water content and concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. 

Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont, has snow monitoring stations that measure snow depth and total water content of the snowpack.

USGS hydrologist Serena Matt measures soil frost at Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont. Soil frost measurements are made with tubes filled with methylene blue solution. Upon freezing, the methylene blue remains in the liquid phase, yielding clear ice that marks the depth of soil frost.

A sign welcomes visitors into the Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont. 

Snow monitoring equipment in a field at Sleepers River Research Watershed in Danville, Vermont.

USGS Hydrologist Jamie Shanley collecting data from soil sensors in the woods of the Sleepers River Research Watershed. These data loggers collect water content and concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. 

A snow monitoring station at Sleepers River Research Watershed measures snow depth and total water content of the snowpack.

Word cloud of science keywords from the USGS Ecosystems Land Change Science Program. Larger words were submitted more often and from multiple projects whereas smaller words were submitted less frequently. Words in the word cloud, listed in order from largest (used most often) to smallest (used least often) and the number of times each were submitted are below:

Word cloud of science keywords from the USGS Ecosystems Land Change Science Program. Larger words were submitted more often and from multiple projects whereas smaller words were submitted less frequently. Words in the word cloud, listed in order from largest (used most often) to smallest (used least often) and the number of times each were submitted are below:

Early morning fog lifts at Leonard Lake, located in Mendocino, California. (Photo Credit: Dave Wahl)

USGS scientists Clarke Knight, Marie Champagne, and Lysanna Anderson (left to right) drive a coring device into the bottom of Leonard Lake to recover a sedimentary core in 2022. (Photo Credit: Dave Wahl)

Marie Champagne holds a freshly obtained surface sediment core while Lysanna Anderson takes measurements of the sediment and sediment-water interface length. (Photo Credit: Dave Wahl)

The tree rings in this whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) cross-section provide a view back in time. Scientists study the patterns of tree ring growth, scars, and wood coloration to determine how long the tree lived, record changes in climate, and even track past fires, insect attacks, and earthquakes!