Images

Rangelands of the desert Southwest can be in a degraded condition and lacking perennial vegetation, which can lead to exposed soil and erosion.

The USGS Utah Water Science Center and the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a collaborative geophysical research effort within Lake Powell, UT-AZ to map the bathymetry of the lake and characterize shallow sediment deposition near the mouths of the San Juan and Colorado Rivers.

Dry wash in San Rafael Desert with white surface salts. White efflorescent salts form on the soil surface as water evaporates from the soil leaving the salt at the surface. 

USGS scientists check breach on glass-calm Great Salt Lake in surreal light.

USGS discusses grassland drought research with the National Park Service, BLM and a rancher at Canyonlands National Park.

The USGS Southwest Biological Science Center discusses rangeland conditions and our research on drought with managers and partners on the Colorado Plateau. Photo courtesy of Mike Duniway, USGS.

Field crew install a Restoration Field Trial Network garden in the rangelands of Northern Arizona.

On an average day during the fire season, multiple wildfires burn in the western United States. For example, 216 fires were active on July 7, 2017. Firefighters were battling 27 of these fires through ground and air support.

USGS scientist Robert Baskin takes a boat out on the Great Salt Lake to conduct research. 

Person taking data in a healthy dryland grassland with dark biocrusts between bunchgrasses and cacti in Utah.

Lake Powell

On the Colorado Plateau, mature biocrusts are bumpy and dark-colored due to the presence of lichens, mosses, and high densities of cyanobacteria and other organisms. Disturbed biocrusts are lighter in color, looking more like the underlying sand than undisturbed ones, and are less capable of stabilizing soils or providing soil fertility.

USGS scientist Jayne Belnap examines instrumentation to measure photosynthetic rates of biocrusts.

Many human activities can be unintentionally harmful to biological crusts. The biocrusts are no match for the compressional stress caused by footprints of livestock or people or tracks from vehicles.

On the Colorado Plateau, mature biocrusts are bumpy and dark-colored due to the presence of lichens, mosses, and high densities of cyanobacteria and other organisms. These organisms perform critical functions, such as fertilizing soils and increasing soil stability, therefore reducing dust.

View from Canyonlands Research Center. 

This is a false-color-composite satellite image of Great Salt Lake, Utah, Sept 2016. Vegetation appears red in image.

Biocrusts provide soil stability and prevent erosion. Soil is the foundation where plants live; if soil is not stable, native plants can have difficulty growing.

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.

USGS scientists created outdoor testing plots where large squares of biocrusts were exposed to different warming and precipitation factors over time.