Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU | G17AS00056

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00056

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00056) is a US Geological Survey effort, administered through the Department of the Interior and led by the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK). It is a discretionary research funding opportunity that uses a cooperative agreement, meaning the project is expected to involve active collaboration with USGS rather than functioning as a hands-off grant. The overall purpose is to support scientific review and research that improves understanding of how environmental change is affecting biological and natural resources, especially on public lands, and to strengthen the tools and methods used to detect and interpret long-term ecological change.

The scope of work is broad but clearly centered on evaluating environmental impacts and resource condition over time. Projects under this opportunity are aimed at assessing the status and trends of plant and animal resources, identifying and quantifying how environmental stressors influence natural resources, and examining how climatic variability shapes ecosystem conditions. A key element is the development or refinement of techniques for assessing long-term changes, which can include monitoring approaches, analytical methods, modeling frameworks, or other applied tools that help managers and scientists track ecosystem condition and anticipate future change.

Within that broad framing, the research focus for this particular opportunity is concentrated on forest vegetation and disturbance, along with mountain hydrology and ecohydrology. In practice, this points to studies that connect ecological dynamics in mountainous landscapes with disturbance regimes such as wildfire and insect outbreaks, and with water-cycle processes influenced by snow, ice, and climate. The emphasis suggests an integrated view of mountain ecosystems, where forest condition, disturbance history, and hydrologic processes are treated as linked components of the same system.

The opportunity lists several specific priorities that define the kinds of questions NOROCK is particularly interested in supporting. On the forest side, priorities include understanding forest dynamics across the western United States, including how forests are changing over time and across regions. It also highlights variability in fire severity among mountain ecosystems, which can involve explaining why some mountain landscapes burn at higher severity than others and how severity patterns shift with weather, fuels, topography, and management. Another priority is teasing apart climatic variability and change effects on trees, contrasted with climate effects on insect populations, with a special focus on insect outbreaks. That framing reflects the need to separate direct climate impacts on tree growth and mortality from indirect impacts mediated through insects, and to better predict when and where outbreaks are likely to occur under different climate conditions.

The grant also targets the downstream consequences of disturbance for carbon, specifically the effects of fire and insect outbreaks on forest carbon in Western states. This can include estimating carbon losses during disturbance events, tracking post-disturbance recovery and carbon sequestration, and improving regional carbon accounting by incorporating disturbance frequency and severity. Taken together, these priorities align with ongoing management and policy needs around wildfire risk, forest health, and climate mitigation strategies tied to carbon storage.

On the cryosphere and hydrology side, priorities include documenting and explaining trends in glacial recession, as well as the timing and magnitude of snowpack accumulation and ablation. These topics are closely tied to water availability, seasonal runoff patterns, and the functioning of headwater systems that supply downstream users. The opportunity also calls out mountain hydrology more broadly, including changes in water quality associated with glacier and cryospheric wasting. That implies interest in how melting ice and snowfields can alter sediment loads, temperature regimes, nutrient and ion concentrations, and overall aquatic habitat conditions, potentially affecting both ecosystem health and water resources.

Finally, the opportunity explicitly emphasizes mountain ecosystem resistance and resilience to climatic variability. In other words, it is not only about documenting change, but also about understanding the capacity of mountain ecosystems to absorb disturbance and climate stress without shifting into degraded states, and the conditions under which recovery is possible. Research in this area often supports practical decision-making by identifying vulnerability hotspots, thresholds, and management levers that can help sustain ecosystem function under increasing climate variability.

Administratively, the opportunity was created on April 3, 2017, with an original closing date of April 21, 2017. It anticipated a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with an award ceiling of $37,565, indicating a relatively small, targeted project or discrete research task rather than a multi-year large research program. The funding activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the CFDA number listed is 15.808. Eligibility is described as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which typically signals that the eligible applicant pool may be restricted or defined in accompanying materials, often in the context of CESU membership or specific partner categories.

In summary, this Rocky Mountain CESU cooperative agreement opportunity is designed to fund a focused, collaborative research effort with USGS NOROCK that advances understanding of how climate variability, disturbance (fire and insects), and cryospheric change are reshaping western mountain forests and hydrologic systems. It prioritizes work that can quantify trends, explain mechanisms, and improve long-term assessment methods, with practical relevance to managing public-land resources in the face of ongoing environmental change.

• 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, Rocky Mountain 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 Apr 03, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 21, 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 $37,565.00 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).

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