Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Rivers CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Rivers CESU" (Funding Opportunity Number 10HQPA0092), is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) request for a single Cooperative Agreement project aimed at improving how laboratories culture and run toxicity tests with the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca. The work is intended to follow and build on established procedures described in USEPA (2000) and ASTM (2009) methods, but with a clear focus on resolving practical and scientific issues that still cause inconsistent performance across labs. In plain terms, the project is about tightening up the recipe and the playbook for keeping Hyalella healthy in the lab and for producing toxicity-test results that regulators and risk assessors can trust.

The scientific motivation is that Hyalella azteca is one of the most commonly used organisms for evaluating chemical toxicity in both water-only tests and sediment tests, largely because it is sensitive to contaminants, practical to rear, and relevant to freshwater ecosystems. Even so, different laboratories sometimes get different levels of survival, growth, or reproduction under what are supposed to be standard test conditions. Those inconsistencies matter because toxicity results are often used in ecological risk assessments, water quality criteria development, and other regulatory decisions. The announcement points to a concrete example: USEPA draft ammonia criteria work reportedly did not include certain Hyalella toxicity data in the core dataset due to concerns that some studies may have used test conditions that were not appropriate, including worries that water chemistry, especially chloride, could be affecting organism performance. That kind of exclusion can reduce the usefulness of Hyalella data in policy and regulatory contexts, so the grant is essentially trying to shore up confidence in the methods and the resulting data.

A major theme of the work is water quality and the choice of test water. Standard sediment-toxicity methods have cautioned against using some forms of reconstituted water as the overlying water because Hyalella performance has been inconsistent in those waters. At the same time, the announcement notes that some labs do fine with reconstituted "Smith water" (Smith et al. 1997), while others report better performance with alternatives such as "Borgmann water" (Borgmann 1996) or with natural waters (or modified natural waters). The opportunity is therefore centered on figuring out why the same nominal method can yield different outcomes depending on the lab, and how to adjust culture and test practices so performance becomes more consistent and predictable. The discussion suggests several possible drivers: differences in water chemistry (including chloride and other ions), food and substrate differences during culture or exposure, differences in acclimation history (how long and under what conditions organisms have been maintained), and genetic strain differences among Hyalella stocks used by different laboratories. The project is meant to refine and clarify methods so that laboratories can reliably meet standard method expectations for acceptable survival, growth, and reproduction in the chosen exposure water, which is a key quality control requirement under USEPA and ASTM guidance.

In terms of program mechanics, this is a discretionary research funding opportunity under the CESU framework, specifically the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. CESUs are partnership networks that allow federal agencies to work with participating institutions on research, technical assistance, and education, and eligibility is limited to organizations that are already partners in the Great Rivers CESU. The agency anticipates making one award, with an estimated total funding level of $29,375. The funding instrument is a Cooperative Agreement, which generally implies substantial federal involvement or collaboration during the project rather than a hands-off grant. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement stated.

Key administrative details include: the opportunity was posted July 7, 2010, with an original and current closing date of July 19, 2010, and it was archived August 18, 2010. The CFDA number listed is 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection). Although the notice does not specify an award ceiling or floor (both are shown as 0), the estimated total funding provides the best indicator of the project scale. For access or submission questions tied to the full announcement, the contact listed is Faith Graves, Contract Specialist, at 703-648-7356.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a targeted methods-improvement project: it is not simply asking for more Hyalella toxicity data, but for research that identifies and resolves the controllable factors that make Hyalella culture and toxicity testing succeed in some labs and fail in others. The intended outcome is more reliable, standardized, and defensible Hyalella-based toxicity protocols, which would strengthen the credibility and regulatory usability of toxicity results generated with this widely used freshwater test organism.

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