Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Florida Caribbean CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 10HQPA0064) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) Southeast Ecological Science Center cooperative agreement offered through the South Florida Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The basic purpose is to support applied science that reduces uncertainty about whether, where, and how canals in the Everglades region should be backfilled as part of restoration work. The project is framed within the DPM cooperative program and focuses heavily on how canal backfilling changes hydrology and habitat, and how those changes ripple through fish and invertebrate communities. The work is meant to directly inform restoration decisions by testing specific, management-relevant hypotheses rather than producing only general ecological background.

The opportunity is built around two big program goals that reflect a real-world tradeoff. On one side, restoration planners are concerned that canals and levees disrupt the historic ridge-slough landscape by interrupting sheet flow and the downstream movement of sediment and other materials. Under that view, complete backfilling may be necessary, especially for canals oriented perpendicular to natural flow, because even partial canal remnants could continue to alter hydrodynamics and transport processes in ways that affect downstream marshes. On the other side, the canals also function as deep-water habitat that can be important to wildlife and to people. In particular, the L-67 canal system supports a valued sport fishery, and canals can act as dry-season refuges during drought and extreme conditions. Canals and levees also change landscape connectivity: they can block or redirect movement of native species, but they may also create corridors or “stepping stones” for exotic, invasive, or nuisance species. The grant is aimed at generating evidence that helps managers decide whether complete backfilling is truly ecologically necessary and, if backfilling occurs, what construction options minimize ecological harm while achieving restoration benefits.

Research under the award targets both hydrodynamics and biological response, including large-scale surface-water flow measurements using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer methods. The scientific work is organized into four specific objectives tied to fauna-related hypotheses in the DPM Science Plan, with an emphasis on comparing different backfilling “treatments” in the L-67C canal and comparing a hydrologically modified canal to a canal still used for conveyance (for example, L-67A). A recurring theme across the objectives is whether altered flow and mixing conditions lead to vertical stratification in canals, especially conditions that produce low dissolved oxygen (hypoxia). Hypoxia is highlighted as a key concern because it can directly stress or kill aquatic organisms and can also shift nutrient cycling and other biogeochemical processes.

Objective 1 focuses on whether habitat quality, measured through depth profiles of dissolved oxygen and temperature (and related water-quality variables), differs among backfilling treatments within L-67C. Because canals are deeper than adjacent marshes, they can develop strong vertical gradients; the study proposes monitoring at fixed stations and recording dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and specific conductivity at 0.5-meter depth increments. This is designed to detect whether particular backfilling designs create or reduce stratification and whether they increase the risk of low-oxygen bottom waters that could harm fish and invertebrates.

Objective 2 extends the habitat-quality question to a comparison between a canal used for conveyance (L-67A) and a canal that has been hydrologically modified and is not conveying water (L-67C). The underlying idea is that conveyance canals are more likely to stay chemically and physically mixed due to moving water, while modified canals may mix less and stratify more easily. The same suite of depth-resolved measurements (dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and conductivity at 0.5-meter resolution) is used to determine whether the modified canal environment creates different water-column conditions, again with hypoxia flagged as a primary ecological risk.

Objective 3 addresses the fish community and fishery implications of backfilling, including potential effects on sport fish such as Micropterus (bass). The work calls for assessing fish assemblage structure and canal use across backfilling treatments in L-67C at five sampling intervals per year, using electroshocking surveys timed to capture conditions immediately before and after flow manipulations. A major component is understanding connectivity between canal and marsh habitats, based on the expectation that canal fisheries may rely on movement to and from the marsh. To measure movement and habitat use, the project proposes radio-tagging 20 large individuals of each of four fish species, including likely native species (such as largemouth bass and Florida gar) and likely nonnative species (such as Mayan cichlid and either oscar or jaguar guapote), with weekly tracking and more intensive tracking around flow changes. The study also plans to use dual frequency identification sonar (DIDSON) to count fish crossing the canal-marsh interface, adding a second line of evidence about how frequently and under what conditions fish move between habitats.

Objective 4 shifts from fish to macroinvertebrates and broader aquatic fauna, testing whether community structure differs among backfilling treatments. The opportunity notes that if backfilling options create depth-related differences in water chemistry and oxygen conditions, the canal could support different assemblages, including more pelagic communities and anaerobic-tolerant benthic fauna in no-backfill or partial-backfill areas. Those shifts can matter beyond the invertebrates themselves because they change prey availability for higher trophic levels and can drive food-web effects. The proposed approach is to sample macroinvertebrate assemblages in L-67C backfilling treatments five times per year, while also measuring prey availability in nearby marshes using sweep-net sampling and periphyton-related sampling to connect canal conditions to surrounding marsh food resources.

Administratively, this is a discretionary opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, with one expected award and an estimated total funding amount of $341,252. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement. Eligibility is limited to participating partners of the South Florida Caribbean CESU, reflecting the CESU model where federal agencies collaborate with a network of approved academic and other partner institutions to deliver research, technical assistance, and education. The opportunity was posted May 11, 2010, with a closing date of May 24, 2010, and an archive date of June 23, 2010. Across the technical objectives, a consistent deliverable is an annual report of results and findings due by January 30, 2011. The listed point of contact is Faith Graves, Contract Specialist, at 703-648-7356 for assistance with accessing the full announcement.

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