Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU | G20AS00118

Opportunity Information: Apply for G20AS00118

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Great Lakes Northern Forests opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G20AS00118) is a discretionary USGS funding call issued by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, through the USGS Great Lakes Science Center. It is structured as a cooperative agreement and is intended specifically for eligible CESU partners (the notice lists eligibility as "Others," with clarification provided in the opportunity's eligibility text). The agency anticipated making a single award, with an award ceiling of $95,228.

The purpose of the project is to build a connected set of downscaled climate and lake biophysical modeling tools that can be used to better explain and predict larval fish foraging conditions and recruitment in Lake Michigan. At a practical level, managers want to understand why survival of young fish can swing dramatically from year to year and how those survival patterns might change under future climate conditions. While fish recruitment has been linked to various climate-related drivers in the past, the specific mechanisms behind that variability are still not well pinned down. Because Lake Michigan fisheries represent an economic resource worth billions of dollars annually, improving forecasts and mechanistic understanding of climate impacts on early life stages is a management priority.

The work is framed around examining both historical and future climate periods, with the historical window described as roughly 1998 to the present and future scenarios spanning approximately 2040 through 2100. To do this, the project calls for a suite of interconnected models where outputs from one component become inputs to the next. The overall modeling chain is meant to take climate conditions (such as temperature, wind, and precipitation), translate those into lake physical and biogeochemical conditions, incorporate tributary-driven nutrient inputs that influence lower food-web productivity, and then link those conditions to larval fish movement and feeding opportunities in nearshore waters where larvae hatch and begin drifting.

The opportunity lays out three main technical objectives. First, the project must develop a coupled, regional, three-dimensional lake-ice-atmosphere model for Lake Michigan. This component is intended to capture the lake's physical dynamics under varying climate conditions, including the influence of ice and atmospheric forcing. Second, it must develop a biophysical model that explicitly incorporates interannual variability in nutrient inputs from tributaries, since those nutrient loads affect zooplankton prey availability, which in turn can influence larval fish feeding success. Third, it must implement a Lagrangian particle dispersion model that simulates the drift and dispersal of larval fish after hatching, treating larvae as passive particles transported by nearshore circulation. This dispersion modeling is meant to help estimate where larvae are likely to be transported, how long they remain in suitable habitats, and how transport intersects with prey fields and other conditions relevant to survival.

In combination, these coupled models are intended to provide a stronger, more quantitative basis for connecting climate variability and change to the early-life processes that drive fish recruitment. The end goal is not just improved hindcasting of past recruitment variability, but also clearer insight into how future climate scenarios could reshape larval dispersal pathways, prey landscapes, and ultimately the survival rates that determine the strength of future year classes in Lake Michigan fisheries.

Key administrative details included in the notice are: the funding activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development; the CFDA number is 15.808; the opportunity was created on June 30, 2020; the original closing date was July 22, 2020; and the program expected to fund one project up to $95,228 under a cooperative agreement mechanism.

• The Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU" 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 Jun 30, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 22, 2020. (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 $95,228.00 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 G20AS00118

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