Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU" (Funding Opportunity Number G15AS00069), was offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), specifically through the Western Ecological Research Center. It was released as a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement, which typically means the agency expects to be actively involved in the work rather than simply issuing funds and stepping back. The overall focus falls under science and technology and other research and development, and it was designed to support applied, management-relevant research using geospatial analysis to address real landscape-scale conservation questions in the western United States.

The project itself is called "Geospatial Analyses of Western Landscapes" and centers on understanding two closely related issues for western wildlife and plants: population connectivity and habitat availability. The core idea is to map and evaluate where "core" habitats still exist and where ecological corridors may function (or could potentially function) to connect populations across large, increasingly fragmented landscapes. The landscape context described in the announcement is one where species movement and gene flow are being influenced by multiple, overlapping stressors and barriers, including renewable energy development zones, major utility and transportation corridors, military training areas, recreation pressure, urban expansion, and ongoing climate change. By identifying corridors and core habitat areas under these complex conditions, the project aims to produce information that can be used to maintain viable populations, support genetic connectivity, and inform adaptive management decisions by land and wildlife managers.

A major component of the work involves analyzing species distributions across time. Rather than focusing only on current habitat conditions, the project calls for examining present, past, and future distributions, explicitly incorporating different climate scenarios. In practical terms, this implies the use of spatial modeling approaches that can integrate climate variables and projections to estimate how habitat suitability and connectivity might have shifted historically and how it may shift going forward. This forward-looking element is important because it links near-term planning decisions, like siting infrastructure or prioritizing conservation actions, to longer-term changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climate-driven factors that shape habitat and movement pathways.

The opportunity also emphasizes data integration and repeatable geospatial workflows. It anticipates that data drawn from many different projects, and potentially many different sampling designs, will be brought together for spatial analysis. These analyses will rely on a library of environmental covariates maintained by USGS, and the announcement notes that this covariate library would continue to be developed through the collaboration. This suggests the work is not only about producing individual maps or models for a single species, but also about building and improving a shared geospatial data foundation and analytical capacity that can support multiple species assessments and be reused for future efforts.

In terms of species, the announcement lists several examples that illustrate the kind of conservation-relevant connectivity questions the project may address. These include the Mojave desert tortoise and Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii and Gopherus morafkai), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and the Colorado Desert fringe-toed lizard (Uma notata). It also notes that up to 25 additional species could be considered as the work proceeds, signaling a flexible, multi-species scope where priorities could be adjusted based on emerging management needs, available data, and collaborative decisions made during the project.

Eligibility is limited to partners within the Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit under the broader CESU Program. CESUs are partnerships intended to connect federal agencies with universities and other partners to deliver research, technical assistance, and education, with an emphasis on involving actively enrolled students in the research. In other words, this opportunity is not open to the general public or all institutions; the applicant must already be a participating member of the Great Basin CESU network, and the project is aligned with the CESU model of collaborative research that also supports training and student participation.

Administratively, the opportunity anticipated a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with an estimated total funding amount of $35,000. No cost sharing or matching was required. The announcement was posted on April 28, 2015, with a closing date of May 15, 2015, and it was later archived on July 28, 2015. The CFDA number associated with the opportunity is 15.808, which corresponds to USGS Research and Data Collection. For access issues or assistance with the full announcement, the listed contact was Faith Graves at USGS (703-648-7356, fgraves@usgs.gov), and the general additional information link referenced Grants.gov.

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