Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G21AS00555

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00555

This opportunity is a US Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement aimed specifically at partners in the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network. The project focus is riparian vegetation along regulated river systems on the Colorado Plateau, with particular emphasis on the Colorado River ecosystem in Arizona. The core goal is to improve the ability to predict how riparian plant communities respond when river flows are altered, using a combination of new, controlled physiological experiments and a deep synthesis of existing long-term monitoring and historical records. In practice, the work is meant to connect changes in plant condition and composition to flow events (including floods and experimental high flows), drought, and broader climate variables over time.

A major driver behind the funding is that, even though there are large and valuable datasets already collected for the Colorado River ecosystem, the mechanisms linking hydrology and climate to vegetation change are still not well resolved. The river is regulated, and vegetation patterns respond not only to big flood-like events but also to subtler operational features such as seasonal base flows (the minimum flow volumes maintained through the year) and daily flow fluctuations. These flow characteristics shape different hydrologic zones along the river corridor, influencing which species establish, persist, or decline. The USGS is pointing to a specific scientific challenge: observational monitoring alone cannot cleanly separate the effects of base flows from the effects of daily fluctuations because these factors tend to be tightly correlated in the real world. Lower-elevation habitats closer to the active channel typically experience larger daily stage changes than higher-elevation terraces, so patterns in the monitoring record can blur cause and effect.

Because of that limitation, the opportunity calls for two complementary lines of work. The first is modeling and synthesis built on existing information, including historical photo archives, remotely sensed imagery, and other riparian vegetation monitoring datasets from across the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado River corridor. This component is expected to translate disparate records into predictive tools or relationships that link vegetation responses to flow and climate conditions, essentially extracting as much signal as possible from decades of observations. The second line of work is new experimentation, designed to independently manipulate or vary key hydrologic drivers so the project can disentangle which aspects of flow regime are actually responsible for observed vegetation outcomes, and how those drivers interact. The description emphasizes physiological experiments using species that occur on the Colorado Plateau, suggesting hands-on measurements of plant response (for example, performance under different water table depths or exposure patterns) to directly connect hydrologic conditions to plant function and survival.

High-Flow Experiments (HFEs) are highlighted as an important part of the system context the research needs to address. HFEs can deposit sand at elevations linked to river stage, which in turn creates new habitat surfaces with different depths to groundwater. Those geomorphic changes can open recruitment opportunities for some species while disadvantaging others, and the project is expected to examine vegetation change in relation to these event-driven habitat shifts as well as longer-term drought and climate variability. The overall intent is to move beyond simple correlations and toward a more mechanistic, predictive understanding that water and river managers can use when evaluating operational choices and anticipating ecological consequences.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning USGS is likely to have substantial involvement during the project rather than acting only as a pass-through funder. The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, listed under CFDA 15.808. Eligibility is restricted to organizations that are participating partners in the Colorado Plateau CESU Program, reflecting the CESU model where federal agencies collaborate with a network of academic and other partner institutions to deliver research, technical support, and education. The opportunity number is G21AS00555, it was created on 2021-06-09, and the original closing date was 2021-08-06. The listed award ceiling is $498,000, indicating the project is sized for a substantial, multi-part research effort that can support both data-intensive synthesis/modeling and the design and execution of new experiments.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-06-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-08-06. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $498,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G21AS00555

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