Images

A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist recording water-quality parameters (pH, temperature, and specific conductance) during the purging of a domestic well that was sampled for radon at a site north of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

Installing nest boxes at Clarks Marsh, Michigan, for a study of avian exposure and effects of Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Clarks Marsh, is on the south side of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township, Michigan.

Sunset view looking northwest from Fishermans Cove, across Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The small sticks and flags in the lake are a sampling grid. 

Between 2009 and 2018, scientists conducted a national scale assessment of mercury accumulation in the National Park System using dragonfly larvae as biosentinels (species that accumulate a pollutant in their tissues as an index of exposure to other organisms without significant adverse effects to the biosentinel) through a citizen science network called the Dragonf

USGS scientist collecting water-quality samples from the Enoree River, SC

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic technician Dan Polette collecting a water-quality sample from Zollner Creek, Oregon for a national-scale investigation of the environmental occurrence of neonicotinoid insecticides in agricultural and urban settings.

USGS scientist processing water-quality samples. She is surrounded by lots of equipment

American kestrel egg experiment

A National Park Service researcher holds a brook trout in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. Scientists have found low levels of mercury found in fish from National Parks in Western States.

USGS scientists collecting microcystin samples from the Enoree River at Pelham, South Carolina

View looking west from Fishermans Cove, across Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The small sticks in the lake are a small-scale sampling grid. 

USGS scientist collects water samples and measures stream-water field parameters at North Sylamore Creek, Arkansas, on January 7, 2014. About 60 sample bottles are filled and shipped to USGS and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency laboratories across the Nation for chemical and biological analysis.

A former uranium mill tailings site near Rifle, Colorado, is next to the Colorado River.

Tidepool scenes of vibrantly colored sea stars could become a rarity as the Sea Star Wasting Disease spreads.

USGS scientist records information at a sampling site on a stream in Pennsylvania. The stream was sampled immediately downstream of the point of discharge of treated wastewater. 

USGS scientists used advanced analytical equipment to investigate the composition of POEA (polyoxyethylene tallow amine).

Recent advancements in assessments using early life stages of test organisms (like the larval mussels shown) provide robust alternatives to full life-cycle chronic ecotoxicity tests. For more information on aquatic toxicology test organisms refer to the U.S.

The copious rocks carried by the September 2013 Colorado floodwaters pulverized and diluted non-floatable materials from the built environment on the Left Hand Canyon.

While sampling the sediments deposited by the September 2013 Colorado floods, the scientists observed that roads (Left Hand Canyon highway) and houses built on the outside bends of river meanders were particularly vulnerable to flood damages.

Golden eagle chick in nest with ground squirrel and raptor carcasses

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.