Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G13AS00069) is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary funding announcement that supports science and technology research through a cooperative agreement. It is issued by the USGS, specifically through the Canyonlands Research Station (CRS) within the Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC). The core purpose of the project is to fund a Colorado Plateau CESU partner to continue an ongoing, long-term field experiment that has been running for about seven years and is now starting to show important biological responses, particularly in biological soil crusts (often called biocrusts). The work emphasizes continued monitoring of existing climate manipulation treatments so that researchers can capture delayed or slowly emerging ecological effects that may not have been visible earlier in the experiment.

The research focus centers on understanding how climate manipulations are affecting dryland ecosystems over time, with special attention to biocrust organisms. Biocrusts are complex living communities on the soil surface, commonly made up of organisms such as cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, and fungi, and they play major roles in soil stability, nutrient cycling, and water infiltration in arid and semi-arid landscapes. The announcement highlights that the climate treatments have reached a stage where impacts are "just beginning to manifest," which is typical in long-duration ecological experiments where community shifts, mortality events, or functional changes can lag behind the initial disturbance. Keeping the manipulations running and continuing measurements is intended to provide a clearer picture of trends, improve confidence in interpreting observed changes, and strengthen the scientific value of the long-term dataset.

A major motivation described in the opportunity is the need to better explain biocrust mortality that has been observed in the manipulation plots. Beyond documenting whether mortality is happening, the project is expected to support further investigation into the mechanisms driving those outcomes. That generally implies work that can connect climate drivers (for example, altered temperature or moisture regimes) to physiological stress, changes in microbial or community composition, shifts in soil properties, or interactions with other environmental variables. By identifying why biocrust organisms are dying or declining under certain manipulated climate conditions, the research can move from simple observation to more predictive understanding, which is often necessary for developing management-relevant conclusions and for improving ecological forecasting.

The opportunity also points to broader significance: results from these climate manipulation plots could help improve global climate models. This reflects the idea that land surface processes in drylands, including the presence and condition of biocrusts, can influence carbon and nitrogen cycling, surface albedo, dust emissions, and hydrologic dynamics, all of which may feed back into climate system behavior. Long-term experimental data can be especially valuable for model development because it provides real-world responses over timescales that are difficult to infer from short studies, allowing models to be tested or parameterized against measured ecological change rather than assumptions.

In terms of funding details, the estimated total funding listed is $41,126, and USGS expected to make one award. The announcement lists no cost sharing or matching requirement, meaning applicants were not required to contribute non-federal funds as a condition of receiving the award. The award ceiling and floor are both shown as 0, which often indicates that a fixed amount or negotiated budget is expected and that the ceiling/floor fields were not used in the listing, rather than implying no funding. The assistance is associated with CFDA number 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection), aligning it with USGS research and monitoring activities.

Eligibility is limited to organizations that are participating partners of the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Program. CESUs are established partnership networks that link federal agencies with universities, nonprofits, and other research institutions to deliver research, technical assistance, and education for resource management needs. Because the award is under the CESU mechanism, only entities that are already formal CESU partners for the Colorado Plateau unit would be eligible to apply, and the cooperative agreement structure typically means there is substantial federal involvement in the project, such as collaboration on study design, data collection, analysis, or reporting.

The timeline for the opportunity shows it was posted on June 19, 2013, with an original and current closing date of July 1, 2013, and an archive date of September 19, 2013. For access to the full announcement, the listing references Grants.gov as the additional information link. The contact provided for issues accessing the full announcement is Faith Graves at USGS, reachable by phone at 703-648-7356 or by email at fgraves@usgs.gov.

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