Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Southern Appalachian Mountains CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Southern Appalachian Mountains CESU funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G14AS00087) is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary grant offered as a cooperative agreement to support applied research and development in storm surge modeling for Cape Lookout National Seashore (CALO) in North Carolina, a coastal unit of the National Park Service (NPS). The work is positioned as part of a broader USGS-NPS collaboration that is running a pilot effort at CALO to map and value ecosystem services and, importantly, to build a practical framework for using ecosystem services information in planning and decision-making across other NPS units. In other words, the project is not only about producing a storm surge model, but also about generating information that helps managers understand how natural systems contribute to protection of people, property, and park resources, and how those benefits can be incorporated into real planning processes.

A central motivation in the announcement is the growing demand from land and resource managers for ecosystem services data that is specific enough to answer local questions. Prior national-scale studies have estimated the protective value of coastal ecosystems for lives and property, but those products are described as too coarse to guide decisions at the scale of an individual community or a single park unit like CALO. This opportunity aims to help close that gap by supporting research that can translate storm surge and sea level rise (SLR) risk into finer-scale, decision-relevant information for a particular place. The announcement also notes that NPS is already modeling storm surge impacts across coastal parks under various SLR scenarios and different tropical storm intensities, primarily using the Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model. The grant is therefore meant to complement and strengthen that ongoing effort, likely by improving local applicability, refining assumptions, enhancing spatial detail, or otherwise producing outputs that better support management questions at CALO.

The broader context is climate-driven sea level rise and the vulnerability of both coastal communities and protected areas to storm surge flooding. The announcement frames this as a timely management challenge: as sea levels rise, storm surge hazards can intensify or extend farther inland, which affects infrastructure, visitor access, natural habitats, and the protective role of coastal features. By funding storm surge modeling tied to ecosystem services valuation, the project is intended to help park and partner agencies evaluate how storms and changing sea level conditions could affect the seashore, and how natural systems may reduce (or fail to reduce) impacts under different scenarios. The implicit management payoff is better information for adaptation planning, risk communication, and prioritization of actions that sustain park resources while recognizing benefits to surrounding communities.

Eligibility is limited and specific. Applicants must be an active participating partner in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program. CESUs are formal partnerships designed to connect federal agencies with universities, non-profits, and other research organizations to provide research, technical assistance, and education. Because this is issued under the CESU mechanism, it is not broadly open to all applicants; it is intended to route the work through the established CESU network and collaborative approach.

The opportunity anticipates a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with an estimated total funding amount of $18,000. There is no stated cost-sharing or matching requirement. The award ceiling and floor are both listed as 0 in the record, which typically indicates that a specific cap was not entered into that field on the posting, but the estimated total funding figure signals the practical scale of the award for budgeting purposes. The activity category is listed as Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the CFDA number is 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection). Key dates included a posted date of June 5, 2014, with an application closing date of June 17, 2014, and an archive date of September 5, 2014, indicating this was a short open window and the opportunity is now archived.

For applicants or readers seeking the full announcement details, the listing references Grants.gov as the additional information link. A USGS point of contact is provided for access issues or questions: Faith Graves (703-648-7356, fgraves@usgs.gov).

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