Images

A large winch on the stern of R/V Pelican is used to retrieve two sediment traps from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

This piece of a core sample taken from offshore of the Fort Lauderdale region of Florida is from an elkhorn coral that lived 6,200 years ago. Coral type, orientation of corallites, and evidence of other fauna and characteristics within the core sample are used to determine how reliable the coral sample is to use for past sea-level reconstruction.

This core sample was taken from an elkhorn coral reef offshore of the Fort Lauderdale region of Florida. Samples from coral skeletons are taken from numerous locations in the core for radiocarbon dating, which tells scientists the age of each coral and of sections within the reef. The corals in this core lived from 7,100 to 6,200 years ago.

The SQUID-5, or a Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with 5 cameras is a towed surface vehicle with an onboard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and 5 downward-looking cameras with overlapping views of the seafloor.

The Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) landing zone with the study site in the background. Bridger Mountains, MT.

Scientists use grids to collect alpine plant data according to GLORIA protocols on the summit of Bison Mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Researchers evaluate vegetation during a GLORIA alpine plant survey near the summit of Seward Mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana.

A USGS marine sediment core from southern Maryland. The changes in deposition at the PETM are clearly apparent in the core as it changes abruptly from dark sand (lower right side of box is oldest) to lighter clay (upper left side of box is youngest), indicating sudden environmental changes associated with a large pulse of atmospheric carbon.

USGS scientists at the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center use repeat photography to document glacier change and as a communication tool. 

Scientists collect alpine plant species and distribution data to complete a GLORIA site inventory on the summit of Seward Mountain, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Marci Robinson collects sediment and fossilized shell samples from the Yorktown Formation in Virginia.

Image of live, single-celled foram, Globorotalia truncatulinoides, viewed under a microscope and collected with a plankton net on the R/V Pelican. Its shell is made from Calcium carbonate and the spikes extensions are called rhizopodia.

A USGS/USFWS team working at a coastal marsh site near a surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) station at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Left to right, Tiffany Lane, Claudia Laurenzano, Laura Feher, Camille Stagg, Jena Moon, and Michael Osland. Taken via camera timer by the team, 10/3/2019. 

USGS and NPS staff conduct vegetation and soil research at long-term study sites in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

An ablation stake which began the summer below the surface of the snow is shown here in the fall, extending far above bare ice surface of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska. A USGS scientist carries a portable steam drill, used to install the stakes in the glacier.

Tree-ring analyses from Lassiter Swamp, located along a tributary of the Chowan River, indicate that cypress trees have occupied the site for at least 500 years. To extend the record even farther back in time, scientists from USGS, Duke University and East Carolina University are working together with students at C.S.

True-color image of wildfire smoke over Alaska on July 7, 2019 captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Researcher holds an ablation stake and winter snow probe during spring mass balance field work on Gulkana Glacier, AK.

Partners discuss seasonal drought experiments.

A cross section of ice-rich permafrost. Layers and areas of sediments are interspersed with frozen patches of ice.

Miriam Jones holding a peat core that was extracted from a thawed permafrost bog at the Alaska Permafrost Experiment (APEX) site at Bonanza Creek LTER, Alaska. The boundary between the formerly frozen permafrost plateau and thawed bog is visible in the peat stratigraphy, with the light-colored peat indicated thawed bog.