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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the name of this funding opportunity?

This opportunity is the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU grant opportunity, issued by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) through the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK).

What is the Funding Opportunity Number?

The Funding Opportunity Number is G15AS00062.

Which federal agency is offering this funding?

The funding call is offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with the announcement issued through the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK).

What type of award is it (grant vs. cooperative agreement)?

It is set up as a cooperative agreement. That means the work is expected to be conducted in close coordination with USGS, rather than being managed as a hands-off grant.

What is the overall purpose of the project?

The purpose is to improve understanding of how climate-driven changes in freshwater systems in the Rocky Mountains are affecting coldwater fish, with strong emphasis on native salmonids and trout-bearing habitats. The announcement highlights warming water temperatures and altered river flow patterns as key climate-driven changes.

What species or groups are emphasized?

The opportunity places a strong emphasis on native salmonids, including native trout, and on habitats that support trout (including areas where trout are present now or were present historically).

What are the main scientific questions this work is intended to address?

Based on the announcement, the work is intended to use empirical evidence from long-term monitoring to detect and explain how climatic variation and longer-term climate change influence fish populations and broader fish assemblages. It also aims to assess how historically coldwater fish communities are changing, including whether non-native species are expanding or increasing as conditions become more favorable for them.

What does the opportunity mean by "mechanistic modeling"?

The opportunity specifically calls for mechanistic modeling, not just descriptive trend summaries. In this context, mechanistic modeling means developing models that quantify cause-and-effect pathways, including direct effects (such as higher temperatures affecting survival or growth) and interactive effects (such as temperature interacting with flow regime shifts, habitat constraints, or other stressors) on native salmonid populations.

Is summarizing trends in monitoring data enough to meet the scientific intent?

No. The announcement explicitly indicates that descriptive trend summaries alone are not the target; the intent is mechanistic modeling that can explain and quantify causal pathways and interactions.

Does the scope include community-level changes, not just native trout populations?

Yes. In addition to population-level impacts on native trout and related salmonids, the scope includes changes in broader fish assemblages and historically coldwater fish communities, including potential expansion or increased abundance of non-native species.

Why is a region-wide database a major deliverable?

The announcement identifies fragmented information as a core problem: biological monitoring datasets and climatological/hydrological datasets are often disjunct, stored separately, collected with different protocols, and not readily assembled across the region. A major deliverable is to compile a region-wide database integrating temporally replicated fish monitoring data with associated landscape attributes and measures of climatic variation, enabling more robust regionally relevant analyses.

What kinds of data are expected to be compiled into the integrated database?

The database is expected to bring together temporally replicated monitoring data for fish populations in coldwater habitats (including places where trout occur now or historically), along with associated landscape attributes and measures of climatic variation. The announcement also references climatological and hydrological datasets (such as information relevant to flow patterns) as part of the fragmented information the effort is meant to integrate.

What is meant by "temporally replicated monitoring data"?

In the context of this announcement, it refers to monitoring data collected over time (long-term monitoring records) that allow detection of changes and relationships across years or other repeated sampling periods.

What management or applied outcomes are expected from the database and models?

The intended payoff is improved decision support for native trout and salmonid conservation under climate change. The announcement indicates the integrated database and modeling should help answer practical questions such as where and when native populations are most vulnerable, which habitats may function as refugia, how warming and altered flows are reshaping community composition, and how non-native species dynamics may be shifting in coldwater systems.

What category is this funding opportunity listed under?

Administratively, it is described as a discretionary funding opportunity in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category.

What is the CFDA number associated with this opportunity?

The CFDA number listed is 15.808, labeled as USGS Research and Data Collection.

How many awards did USGS anticipate making?

USGS anticipated making one award.

What was the estimated total funding amount?

The estimated total funding amount was $64,625.

Is cost sharing or matching required?

No. The announcement states that no cost sharing or matching was required.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is limited to organizations that are official participating partners in the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.

Why is eligibility limited to Rocky Mountain CESU partners?

The announcement links eligibility to the CESU model, which is designed to support collaborative research, technical assistance, and education partnerships. As a result, only official participating partners in the Rocky Mountain CESU Program are eligible.

What are the key dates for this opportunity?

The posted date was April 8, 2015, and the closing date was April 24, 2015. The opportunity was later archived on July 8, 2015.

Where were applicants directed to find the full opportunity details?

The announcement referenced Grants.gov for full details.

Who was listed as the contact for access issues?

The USGS contact provided for access issues was Faith Graves. Phone: 703-648-7356. Email: fgraves@usgs.gov.

What geographic region is the work focused on?

The focus is on freshwater ecosystems and coldwater fish in the Rocky Mountains, with an emphasis on region-wide understanding supported by an integrated database across the region.

What climate-related drivers are specifically highlighted?

The announcement specifically highlights warming water temperatures and altered river flow patterns, and calls for evaluating both direct and interactive effects of these drivers on native salmonid populations and fish communities.