Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont South Atlantic Coast | G17AS00127

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00127

This funding opportunity, titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont South Atlantic Coast" (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00127), is a discretionary research grant offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) within the Department of the Interior. It is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning the selected recipient is expected to work closely with USGS staff rather than operating fully independently. The program falls under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category and is associated with CFDA number 15.808. The opportunity was posted on August 14, 2017, with an original application deadline of August 28, 2017.

The core purpose of the award is to support collaborative research that quantifies how changes in streamflow relate to shifts in fish community dynamics. In practical terms, the project focuses on identifying and testing measurable statistical relationships between patterns in river flow (for example, variation in magnitude, timing, frequency, duration, and variability of flows) and biological responses observed in fish communities over time. The setting for this work is the ACF river system, commonly referring to the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin, where streamflow management and ecological outcomes are often closely linked due to competing water demands and the ecological importance of the basin.

A major component of the work involves synthesizing results from a multi-site field effort that spans seven years. Rather than funding new large-scale field sampling, the emphasis here is on pulling together, organizing, and interpreting an existing long-term dataset collected across multiple locations within the basin. The recipient is expected to analyze fish species occurrence data (whether a species is present or absent at a site and time) as well as count data (abundance information), which can be used to describe community composition, population fluctuations, and broader ecological patterns across flow conditions.

The analytical goals go beyond routine summaries. The opportunity explicitly calls for developing novel measures of ecological response to environmental variation, suggesting an interest in new or improved metrics that capture how fish communities respond to hydrologic change. This could include refined indicators of community stability or turnover, flow-sensitive indices of assemblage condition, responses of functional groups or life-history strategies, detection of thresholds or tipping points associated with altered flow regimes, and approaches that better account for imperfect detection, rare species, or sampling variability. In general, the USGS is looking for methods that translate complex ecological datasets into clearer, decision-relevant relationships between hydrology and biological condition.

Because this is a cooperative agreement, active collaboration with USGS is a central expectation throughout the project, particularly in data analysis, interpretation, and communicating findings. The recipient will work with USGS scientists to ensure analyses align with agency needs and that the results are reported in formats useful for scientific and management audiences. Reporting likely includes written products such as technical reports, manuscripts, presentations, or other deliverables that document methods, results, and implications for understanding flow-ecology relationships in the basin.

Eligibility is limited to partners within the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network, specifically the Piedmont South Atlantic Coast CESU, with eligibility described under the notice's additional information. The project budget has an award ceiling of $93,000, and USGS anticipated making a single award. The recipient is expected to provide a post-doctoral associate or equivalent technical expertise to carry out the advanced analysis and synthesis work, along with additional technical support as needed. In other words, the award is designed to fund specialized research capacity, with an emphasis on statistical and ecological expertise, to maximize the value of an existing long-term monitoring dataset and produce rigorous, collaborative findings about how streamflow variation shapes fish communities in the ACF river system.

• The Department of the Interior, Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont South Atlantic Coast" 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 Aug 14, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 28, 2017. (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 $93,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for G17AS00127

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