Images

Landscape view Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina

► Project: Continuous Water-Quality Monitoring at Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina

A USGS diver beside a Massive Starlet (Siderastrea siderea) coral colony in Dry Tortugas National Park. Scientists used a core from this coral to reconstruct ocean temperatures going back to 1837. Photo: USGS, May 2012

Scientists used a core from this Massive Starlet (Siderastrea siderea) coral colony in Dry Tortugas National Park to reconstruct ocean temperatures going back to 1837. Photo: USGS

Pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea leaves filled with water in a bog in northern Florida.

Waterfall in Appalachian Forest

Fishing guide Camp Walker, Catalyst Charters, of Islamorada, Fla.,  took this photo of a Burmese python swimming in Florida Bay from the end of Twisty Channel toward End Key on Nov. 16, 2011. 

Picture of the Outer Banks in South Carolina, November 2011 

Picture of the Outer Banks in late fall (South Carolina, 2011)

The sun begins to set through the trees within the Outer Banks, South Carolina (November 2011).

Picture of the Outer Banks in late fall (South Carolina, 2011)

Oblique aerial photograph near Rodanthe, North Carolina, looking south along the coast on August 30, 2011, three days after landfall of Hurricane Irene. 

Flint River Below Georgia Power Dam.

Measuring discharge during May 2011 Memphis, Tennessee flood

USGS boat crew prepares for a discharge measurement during May 2011 Memphis, Tennessee flooding

Tangled web of prop roots from red mangrove trees, intermixed with black mangroves and white mangroves farther back in the forest.  Mangrove forests cover much of the southwestern coastal region of Everglades National Park.  The red mangroves are the most salinity tolerant and grow with their prop roots in the water or within the range of high tide.

Rainbow Springs, Florida, USA

Florida Everglades

Bleaching colony of great star coral, Montastraea cavernosa, with polyps extended, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colony of blushing star coral, Stephanocoenia intersepta/michelinii. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colony of blushing star coral, Stephanocoenia intersepta/michelinii.

Bleaching colony of massive starlet coral, Siderastrea siderea, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.