Images

Stream habitat measurement showing meter stick and gravelometer used to measure channel depths and particle sizes.

Bank height above the water surface is measured at each transect along a stream reach to estimate the channel and bed substrate as well as the type and size of sediment size that can be transported by the stream.

Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee, Wisocnsin with Lake Michigan in the background, taken from Inner Milwaukee Harbor.

These photos, taken before and after a grassed-waterway conservation practice was installed, show a change in the water clarity of agricultural runoff at an edge-of-field surface monitoring site in Wisconsin.

Cows feed on a farm in southern Wisconsin. A new USGS report shows that drought periods followed by rainfall caused nitrate levels to increase to the highest ever measured in some Midwest streams during a 2013 study. 

An irrigation system waters crops in southern Wisconsin. A new USGS report shows that drought periods followed by rainfall caused nitrate levels to increase to the highest ever measured in some Midwest streams during a 2013 study. 

Sediment accumulation along a downstream concrete lined reach of the Kinnickinnic River, April 2016.

Both macro- and microplastics are contaminants of concern in freshwater environments. The drawing depicts the different types of plastics and the amorphous means by which they enter the Great Lakes environment. The backdrop is a conglomerate of different landscapes that represent the many different tributaries at which the study was conducted.

Milwaukee River Estuary, March 2016

Confluence of inner harbor and the Milwaukee River along North Riverwalk Way, leading into downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin in early spring.

Photo of the Camp Manito-wish YMCA boat house on Lake Boulder, Wis.

Photo of Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and the Environment (LIDE).

Completed installation of test plots: permeable pavers (foreground), permeable concrete (midground), and permeable asphalt (background).

Illustration created by Ben Siebers, USGS scientist, for journal article "Human and bovine viruses and bacteria at three Great Lakes beaches: Environmental variable associations and health risk".

Both irrigation wells and municipal wells affect water levels in the Little Plover River, Wisconsin. 

USGS scientist collecting an Equal width increment (EWI) sample on Bark River, Merton, WI.

The R/V Sturgeon setting sail from the Navy Pier in Chicago, IL on its fall survey of Lake Michigan.  The Sturgeon is based in Cheboygan, MI at the Cheboygan Vessel Base.

A red fox (Vulpes vulpes) at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center prairie. 

An iceberg floating in Lake Superior, June 2014. Photographed from the R/V Kiyi.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientist collects water samples on Little Lake Butte des Morts, Wisconsin, for contaminants testing.