Unified Interior Regions
North Dakota
Dakota Water Science Center: Hydrology, cooperation, and diversity in data collection for the Missouri, Souris, and Red River Basins including focusing on emerging environmental issues. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center conducts applied research supporting policy and management decisions for partners on vulnerable prairie grassland and wetland ecosystems of global importance.
States L2 Landing Page Tabs
Wetlands of North Dakota
Wetlands once covered about 4.9 million acres of North Dakota--11 percent of the State. By the 1980's, the acreage had decreased to about 2.7 million acres, a loss of about 45 percent.
Oil and Gas Resources
Information on the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin in the north central part of the United States and associated studies pertaining to the oil and gas development in western North Dakota and in nearby states.
Water Use in North Dakota
The USGS National Water-Use Information Program collects data about the quantities of water withdrawn for specific uses: public supply, domestic, industrial, mining, thermoelectric power, irrigation, livestock, and aquaculture.
Ecological Drought in Riparian Ecosystems
Drought is killing riparian trees along many rivers in the western United States. The cause can be increasing temperature or decreasing precipitation, flow or water-table elevation. At multiple locations we are relating water availability to physiological measurements of tree survival and water stress, such as ring width, carbon stable isotope ratio and branch hydraulic conductivity. These...
Riparian Ecology
Riparian ecologists in the AS Branch study interactions among flow, channel change, and vegetation along rivers across the western United States and worldwide. Our work focuses on issues relevant to the management of water and public lands, including dam operation, climate change, invasive species, and ecological restoration. Investigations take place on a range of scales. For example,...
Pesticides in the Prairie Pothole Region
Wetlands of the northern Great Plains are crucial feeding grounds for migrating birds and waterfowl embedded in an agricultural landscape. Land use and hydrology can affect adult aquatic insects – crucial prey for critically declining populations of insectivorous birds. Current studies focus on effects of current-use pesticides on adult aquatic insects to inform decision making about...
HDgov: Multi-agency Website for Human Dimensions of Natural Resources
HDgov is an interactive and mobile-responsive online portal to interagency, academic, and non-government resources focused on the human dimensions of natural resource management. The web portal provides easy access to tools, publications, data, and methods that help ensure that the people side of natural resources is considered throughout the entire natural resource management process. The...
National Park Service Visitor Spending Effects
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. USGS economists collaborate with the National Park Service social science program to estimate NPS...
Using Quantile Regression to Investigate Ecological Limiting Factors
Unexplained heterogeneity in statistical models of animal responses to their physical environment is reasonable to expect because the measured habitat resources are a constraint on—but not the sole determinant of—abundance, survival, fecundity, or fitness. The ecological understanding and reliability of management predictions based on animal habitat models can be improved by shifting focus ...
North American Waterfowl Management Plan
The ultimate success of North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) depends on maintaining relevance to stakeholders and society. In order to be relevant, a first step is to better understand what people value in regard to waterfowl and their habitats.
Quantitative and Statistical Research Collaboration
Mathematical and statistical models are powerful research tools that play several important roles in conceptualizing and understanding the structure and dynamics of complicated ecological systems, including developing mechanistic hypotheses pertaining to ecological systems, designing studies that elucidate ecosystem structure and function, and extracting information from data.
Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative: Rocky Mountain Region
The Rocky Mountain Region of Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Two USGS Science Centers initiate and develop ARMI projects in this region. Investigations at NOROCK are headed by Dr. Blake Hossack. Investigations at the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT), Colorado, are headed by Dr. Erin Muths. The ARMI program is based...
Scientist Lifting a Sample Bottle from Ice Hole on a Stream
USGS scientist lifting a grab sample from ice hole on a stream in North Dakota. The scientist is part of a science team that assessing the potential impacts of a brine spill from unconventional oil and gas activities (UOG) on environmental health.
USGS Bee Research in North Dakota
The USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center partners with professional beekeepers in North Dakota to evaluate what plant species honey bees forage on and when.
Society needs healthy bees and other insects to pollinate crops, but land use changes that decrease flower abundance can affect bee health and pollination services. Midwestern states are losing native
...
Ice Formation at Knife River at Manning, ND (06339100)
Ice formation looking upstream on the Knife River at Manning, North Dakota (U.S. Geological Survey streamgage 06339100;
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nd/nwis/inventory/?site_no=06339100&agency_cd=USGS&). Flow was 2.5 cubic feet per second.
Ice Spikes
Ice spikes on the Knife River at Manning, North Dakota. At the time, there was flow under the ice at 2.09 cubic feet per second.
Winter view at Bear Den Creek
This is a winter view of a hillside in the Bear Den Creek Basin or North Dakota.
Black and White on a Winter Day
A black and white photograph of a winter day at teh Bear Den Creek streamgage near Mandaree, North Dakota.
Bear Den Creek Streamgage
Winter at the Bear Den Creek streamgage near Mandaree, North Dakota.
Lone Pillar
A support pillar from a former bridge over the Yellowstone River near Cartwright, North Dakota.
Winter View
Winter view of Little Muddy River below Cow Creek near Williston, North Dakota.
Water Control Structure
Water control structure near the USGS streamgage on Bear Den Creek, near Mandaree, North Dakota.
Cableway Saddle Block
A picture of the cableway saddle block used to support the cableway that allows USGS personnel to make streamflow measurements on Bear Den Creek near Mandaree, ND.
Streamgage on Bear Den Creek
This is the USGS streamgage shelter for Bear Den Creek near Mandaree, North Dakota. The antenna on top sends streamflow data via satellite to the USGS National Water Information System.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced today that Interior’s North Central Climate Science Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, is awarding nearly $400,000 to universities and other partners.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have published one of the first comprehensive assessments of selenium in eastern Idaho’s upper Blackfoot River.
Energy development in the Williston Basin oil production area of Montana and North Dakota, which includes the Bakken and Three Forks Formations, has not affected shallow groundwater quality, according to a recently published study in the journalGroundwater.
The American bullfrog has expanded its invasion of the Yellowstone River floodplain in Montana, according to a new study released in “Aquatic Invasions.”
Above normal precipitation in the Heart, Knife and Green River Basins of North Dakota led to record-breaking streamflows at several U.S. Geological Survey streamgages this past August.
Streamflow in the eastern portions of the Missouri River watershed has increased over the past 52 years, whereas other parts have seen downward trends.
US Topo maps now have a crisper, cleaner design - enhancing readability of maps for online and printed use. Map symbols are easier to read over the digital aerial photograph layer whether the imagery is turned on or off.
Want to know how elevation will benefit your state? The USGS National Geospatial Program is advancing the 3D Elevation Program, known as 3DEP, in response to the growing need for high-quality three-dimensional representations of the Nation’s natural and constructed features.
Stronger storms, rising seas, and flooding are placing hundreds of millions people at risk around the world, and big part of the solution to decrease those risks is just off shore. A new study finds that coral reefs reduce the wave energy that would otherwise impact coastlines by 97 percent.
Dr. Gary Krapu, retired U.S. Geological Survey wildlife biologist and North Dakota native, recently received the L. H. Walkinshaw Crane Conservation Award for his career-long research on sandhill cranes.
Clearer views of waters along the U.S. and Canadian border are now possible with new seamless digital maps. These maps make it easier to solve complex water issues that require a thorough understanding of drainage systems on both sides of the International Boundary.
Earlier spring nesting related to climate change could negatively affect the survival of pelican chicks at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, N.D., according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report.
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Locations
Dakota Water Science Center- Grand Forks Field Office
Phone: (701) 775-7221
Fax: (701) 775-1114
Dakota Water Science Center- Bismarck
Phone: (701) 250-7400
Fax: (701) 250-7429
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Phone: 701-253-5500
Fax: 701-253 5553