Unified Interior Regions

Salt marsh pond (left) and tidal creek (r), Plum Island, MA

Two USGS scientists traveling by boat to estuary sampling and monitoring stations, Merrimack River, Massachusetts

Safety is a top priority. USGS staff recently improved access to field sites at the Herring River estuary within the Cape Cod National Seashore to provide safer paths through a phragmites wetland. Research continues largely through deployment of instruments that can take measurements in water and air continuously, but some measurements do require staff, who are

Merrimack River near Aiken St Bridge, Lowell, Massachusetts (USGS ID: 010965985).

The site is one of the Merrimack project water quality sampling and monitoring stations.

Instruments continue to collect vital data during workplace closures. Here staff perform maintenance on an eddy flux tower located within a phragmites wetland at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The instruments on this tower measure methane and CO2 fluxes related to plant and soil processes day in and day out for the entire year. This information is critical for

Timing is Everything: How Fish and Wildlife are Responding to Climate Change Through Shifts in the Timing of Life Events

Changes in phenology, or the seasonal timing of recurring life history events such as breeding, feeding, and movements, have emerged as a primary indicator of species’ responses to climate change. In terrestrial environments,

When wetland plants in the northeast emerged this spring, USGS scientists were working from home and unable to start many planned research activities. However, many instruments were already deployed and continued to collect information critical to USGS research. These instruments still need visits occasionally to download data and make sure there aren’t any problems.

Tall and contiguous coastal dunes can substantially mitigate storm surge and flooding near our coasts. Understanding the position and height of dunes, as well as how these features change over time, is critical to the USGS mission of predicting impacts to coastal infrastructure and habitat caused by storms and hurricanes. To this end, the USGS operates a number of small

A USGS Hydrologic Technician is briefly shown calibrating the compass on a remote controlled Qboat. The Qboat is then sent across the Millers River near South Royalston, Massachusetts to collect discharge data. This video shows the Qboat making several passes across the river.
 

This image created using the Continuous Bathymetry and Elevation Models of the Massachusetts Coastal Zone and Continental Shelf, shows Salem and Marblehead in the middle of the image and Rocky Neck in the upper middle.

This image created using the Continuous Bathymetry and Elevation Models of the Massachusetts Coastal Zone and Continental Shelf, shows the three-dimensional perspective view of Nantucket Island, MA looking from the Southeast to the Northwest.