Funding Wizard

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Western Ecological Research Center, is offering a funding opportunity to be issued under the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) Cooperative Agreement for research project to evaluate native fish presence, prey resources, and habitat at restoration sites to inform beneficial reuse of dredged material.

The US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU Partner for research to characterize burn severity and potential vegetation recovery at high spatial and temporal resolutions 2020 and 2021 Presidentially Declared wildfires in California. This information will be used to inform water and landslide hazard objectives and to develop a set of tools that aid strategies by land managers (e.g., DOI and US Forest Service) in efforts to recover desirable vegetation, decrease the impact of invasive species, and stabilize soils and other resource management to reduce risk to communities.

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in 1) long-lead crop yield forecasting and crop condition outlooks, and 2) methods to provide crop yield forecasts and crop condition outlooks in FEWS NET countries where sub-national crop yield data are either non-existent or severely limited.

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in lichen mercury geochemistry to evaluate gaseous mercury transport at contaminated mine sites.

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research topics in the potential and actual effects of environment stressors.This CESU will encompass science activities representing a wide variety of topics dealing with the potential and actual effects of environment stressors on species of concern. It will represent collaborative studies between USGS and the recipient for a series of individual projects that represent discreet entities which have unique objectives and anticipated products. Three projects will represent the initiation of the agreement. Future projects will be added by modification to the agreement.This funding opportunity is to establish a mechanism for cooperative scientific research, educational development, and technological collaboration to maximize contributions to scientific research and practical applications for solving environmental problems, benefiting local communities, school systems, governmental agencies and the general public in California and the western United States.Current university academic programs and facilities, under a cooperative agreement, will provide for joint research and consultation in scientific matters and participation by interested students and faculty involved in the following subjects:Fisheries and wildlife ecologyPlant ecologyUrban ecologyVertebrate taxonomyToxicologyPhysiology and biochemistryMethodologies for environmental chemistryEnvironmental educationResearch Objectives: PROJECT 1 Title:Wild Immunology: Polar Bears, Climate Change, and Oil ExplorationProject Goals: The overall goal of this project is to assess and monitor polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and arctic ecosystem health in the backdrop of climate change and increased oil exploration.Specific Objectives: Continue to develop diagnostic gene transcript panels using cutting edge molecular tools (i.e. tanscriptomics). Continue collection of polar bear blood (free-ranging and captive) for analysis. Apply gene transcript panels, as well as transcriptome technology, to specific questions relating to polar bear and arctic ecosystem health (e.g. nutritional state, contaminant effects on immune function). This project should continue for approximately 5 years. PROJECT 2 Title:Wild Immunology: Desert Tortoise Health Diagnostics in a Changing Desert EcosystemProject Goals: The overall goal of this project is to develop a gene transcript panel for desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) that will be useful in identifying physiologic perturbations within individuals and populations potentially affected by human disturbance, i.e., alternate energy development, military exercises, in the Mojave Desert environment. Specific Objectives: Determine if RNA can be successfully isolated from desert tortoise blood collected in PaxGene tubes (optimize extraction). Based on current state of knowledge of desert tortoise health issues, identify 20- 30 genes of interest best able to differentiate among different stress induced physiological changes. Isolate and sequence these genes in the desert tortoise. Develop realtime PCR systems for each gene of interest. Identify and obtain blood from captive desert tortoise samples for use as reference population. Run gene panel on 200-300 desert tortoise samples. Approximate duration of project: 5 yearsPROJECT 3 Title:Wild Immunology: Sea Otters, Climate Change, and Population HealthProject Goals: The overall goal of this project is to assess and monitor sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and nearshore ecosystem health in the backdrop of climate change and altered food web dynamics.Specific Objectives: Continue to develop diagnostic gene transcript panels using cutting edge molecular tools (i.e. transcriptomics). Continue collection of sea otter blood (free-ranging and captive) for analysis. Apply gene transcript panels, as well as transcriptome technology, to specific questions relating to sea otter and nearshore ecosystem health (e.g. nutritional state, contaminant effects on immune function). This project should continue for approximately 5 years.For the initial three projects, gene transcription contributes substantially to the understanding of the intrinsic health of individual organisms. Transcription examines the physiologic and metabolic effects of stressors on both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, which in turn can indicate overall population and subsequently ecosystem health. Stressors are physical (injury, temperature), chemical (organic xenobiotics), or biological (pathogens). The molecular response to stress is interpretable across diverse species ranging from mollusks to mammals that inhabit ecosystems from oceans to deserts. Gene transcription can simultaneously measure toxicological, pathological, and immunological responses to stressors and provide assessment of the general well-being of an organism and subsequently its population, as well as a reflection of the condition of its environment.This information in concert with health diagnoses, population demography and dynamics and environmental assessment can provide insight into an individual organism's likelihood for survival and population sustainability as well as an understanding of the effects of environmental impacts on populations In collaboration with the CESU Partner, USGS scientists are engaged in discovery of gene primers crucial to conducting transcription analyses. The transcription of key suites of genes representative of multiple stressors is being assessed in listed, high profile species such as (but not limited to) the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) and sea turtles ( Cheloniodea), polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) and migratory birds as well as in important prey items such as the blue mussel; an important food web component and sentinel species.

The U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center (USGS-WERC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU Partner of the Californian Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) program in the continuing development and advancement of a wildlife immunology research program. Nearshore marine habitats worldwide are facing unprecedented challenges due to expanded commercial and industrial development, resource extraction and environmental changes, which all have the potential to significantly degrade coastal ecosystems and biological resources. Although nearshore areas in Alaska may have had fewer direct effects due to their remote nature and inaccessibility, they nevertheless are subject to impacts associated with a warming climate and potential effects of oil and gas development, tourism and harvest of marine resources. Alterations associated with increased temperatures and other stressors, have already been noted in Alaska marine waters, and continuing alterations, such as acidification, are anticipated. Commercial and industrial developments in the Alaska nearshore, including oil and gas extraction, are increasing, with the potential to contribute contaminants to the environment that can damage coastal resources. A primary lesson from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is that low levels of hydrocarbons persisting in the environment can have a long-lasting effect on survival of exposed species. In recent work, have found differences in gene transcription results between parks and among sites in Alaska, which indicate variation in both large-scale and local environmental conditions. Changing environmental conditions in coastal ecosystems necessitate methods to assess the health of intertidal communities and facilitate management decisions to sustain these resources. Gene transcription assays will be a valuable technique because they provide early evidence of changes in physiologic status. In the conclusions of our recently published paper, monitoring nearshore ecosystem health using Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) as an indicator species (Bowen et al. 2020, PeerJ) we determined that further development of gene transcription methods as well as controlled laboratory exposure studies would improve our capacity to monitor for early signs of physiological impacts in razor clams and their ecosystems due to changing environmental conditions. USGS-WERC is offering this opportunity to a CESU Partner having the capability to complete, and with demonstrated experience conducting and publishing results, transcriptomic analyses of the Pacific Razor Clam. Through this CESU agreement, the federal and state university partners will cooperate fully in development of a research program that will produce decision support tools and other products for use in nearshore marine ecosystem conservation strategies and management worldwide. The cooperation of the USGS and its CESU partner brings a combination of expertise to address this objective that is greater than that possessed by either partner on its own. Research Objectives This research has two distinct elements that will each result in a peer-reviewed publication and data release. All work will provide datasets that USGS and the CESU Partner will collaboratively use to produce peer-reviewed scientific publications. These publications and related products (e.g., data sets and models) will be used by agencies (e.g. USFWS, NPS, CA and AK state and local agencies, and NGOs) to inform their priorities, strategies, and objectives for the management of marine nearshore ecosystems. A final product will be a transcriptome panel that can be used to assess the health of nearshore marine ecosystems worldwide. Here is a brief description of each of the two work elements to be addressed in this research: 1) Alaska’s Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) are important for commercial and personal harvest, and as prey for marine animals. Currently, the largest commercial razor clam fishery in Alaska occurs in west Cook Inlet near Polly Creek and annual harvest averages approximately 300,000 pounds while recreational clam harvests provide a boost to local economies. The state’s largest sport and personal use Pacific razor clam fishery historically occurred along a 50-mile area of beach between the Kasilof and Anchor rivers on the east side of Cook Inlet, where almost one million clams per year were harvested from 1977-2006. However, between 2009 and 2012, the annual harvest was 54% below the long-term mean (1977-2008), indicating ECI was showing dramatic declines. These declines resulted in subsequent restrictions of ECI clamming in 2013 with full closure in 2015. Following this closure, razor clam numbers have not recovered to historical abundances. In contrast, the razor clam fisheries in WCI continue to support a commercial and personal use fishery over the same time frame. 2) One of the limitations of this study was the relatively small number (n=5) of genes included in the transcript panel. This stems from the fact that relatively little is known about the genetic makeup of Pacific razor clams in comparison with other commercially harvested invertebrate species (Bowen et al., 2020). Studies have been performed on the Chinese razor clam (Sinonovacula constricta) identifying genes responding to heavy metals, anthropogenic sound, and bacterial challenge, but no transcription-based studies of the Pacific razor clam were found in the literature prior to initiation of our work. In fact, GenBank®, the National Institutes of Health genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences, contains only three genetic sequences for Pacific razor clams, all representing one gene. In addition, a relatively recent transcriptomic study of the Chinese razor clam, found only 9.9% of the 147,669 transcribed sequences had significant matches in GenBank. Nevertheless, the 5 genes used in our study have been shown to respond to stressors in other efforts, both of the Chinese razor clam and other bivalves. However, examination of additional genes or the entire Pacific razor clam transcriptome might reveal differences, consequently leading us to refine our conclusions.

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research that explores the development of a decision support framework and tool that will help managers make decisions about how to manage European Green Crab on the U.S. west coast.

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for marine mineral formation and oceanic setting. The primary Research Objectives covered by this agreement include (1) improve understanding of marine mineral formation, including processes of element enrichment and growth timescales and (2) improve understanding of the environmental context around marine minerals, including the potential for geochemical perturbations as a result of disturbance.

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on coral reef . The primary Research Objective of this project is to test hypotheses about long-term changes in coral calcification in response to environmental variability using the emerging technology of computed tomography (CT) and coral cores collected from Ofu Island in American Samoa and from inshore locations throughout south Florida. In doing so, this project aims to 1) reconstruct decadal to millennial-scale changes in calcification during the Holocene to determine how longer-term environmental changes, including ocean warming and ecosystem degradation, influence coral growth and 2) develop decades- to centuries-long records of coral growth and bioerosion preserved within individual cores and to provide important historical context for modern day studies of coral calcification, reef erosion, and the impacts of these processes on reef health.

The Western Ecological Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to a partner of the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) Program for project titled “Evaluation of Occupancy Dynamics of Western Spadefoots (Spea hammondii) using eDNA.”