Hurricane Sandy Submerged Marine Habitat Mapping A Foundation for Enhancing Resilience to Climate Change and other Stressors at Gateway National Recreation Area | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This notice describes a National Park Service (NPS) Hurricane Sandy-related grant action focused on mapping and monitoring submerged marine habitats at the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, specifically on the bay side. It is explicitly a Notice of Intent to Award, not an open call for proposals, meaning the NPS is announcing its plan to fund a defined set of activities without full and open competition. The intended recipient is Rutgers University (a public, state-controlled institution of higher education) through a cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.945 (Cooperative Research and Training Programs - Resources of the National Park System). The total planned award amount is 300,000 dollars (with the ceiling and floor both listed as 300,000), with no cost-share or matching requirement. The notice was posted April 18, 2014, with a listed closing date of April 23, 2014, and an archive date of April 24, 2014.

At its core, the project is meant to create a detailed baseline of seafloor conditions and biological communities in a storm-affected coastal park unit, then use that baseline to detect and interpret change over time. The work emphasizes the bay side of Sandy Hook, described as comparatively more stable and biologically influenced than more energetic settings, making it a useful area for tracking both routine seasonal shifts and storm-driven disturbance. By producing high-resolution bathymetry, acoustic imagery, sediment characterization, and standardized habitat classifications, the project is positioned as a foundation for improving resilience planning and understanding how climate change and other stressors may alter the park's submerged resources.

The first major deliverable is a high-resolution map of bathymetry (water depth and seafloor shape) paired with side-scan sonar imagery for the Sandy Hook Unit holdings on the bay side. This mapping is to be completed using GPS-referenced, hull-mounted sonar systems as well as side-scan sonar hosted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The combination matters because hull-mounted systems can efficiently collect broad coverage and accurate depth data, while AUV-based side scan can provide very detailed imagery closer to the seafloor and can be routed to revisit the same areas for change detection.

The second deliverable builds a benthic characterization map by integrating several data streams: side-scan sonar imagery, sediment samples, and other imagery. The side-scan survey is intended to produce high-resolution pictures of the seafloor that show different bottom conditions (for example, variations in sediment texture, ripples, vegetation, shell material, or hard features). Those acoustic images are also used to locate and identify objects exposed on the bottom and to flag areas where the geology or biology appears to change (described as lithologic and biogeologic facies changes). The approach then combines the acoustic backscatter patterns with depth data to produce a benthic map showing transitions in bottom type. To ensure the map reflects real conditions rather than just acoustic signatures, the plan includes "ground truthing" by benthic scientists using direct sampling with a Van Veen grab sampler. Results from those sediment and biological samples are then overlaid on the acoustic data to refine and improve the final habitat interpretation.

A third deliverable is a specific map of anomalous physical objects that are not native to the surrounding sediment or bedform context. Examples given include rocks, wrecks, relict anthropological structures, and debris. These features are singled out because they can be important for multiple reasons: they may have cultural or archaeological value, may provide unique biological habitat (hard structure in an otherwise soft-bottom environment), or may represent navigation and safety hazards. Identifying and georeferencing these anomalies also supports later monitoring, since such features can shift, become exposed or buried, or change condition after major storms.

The fourth deliverable shifts from physical mapping to ecological mapping: a map of benthic biological communities and how they relate to physical habitat features, using the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). CMECS is a standardized framework used to describe marine habitats in a consistent way across regions and projects, which helps managers compare results over time and integrate them into broader coastal and climate resilience planning. The sampling design described is fairly detailed and is meant to statistically support the habitat classifications derived from sonar. In Year 1, the team plans to collect three replicate benthic samples at 22 sites (66 total samples). In Year 2, they plan to sample 11 stations (again with three replicates each) to verify the accuracy of the habitat classifications developed during analysis. The document explains that grab sampling will follow the sonar mapping so that sampling effort can be stratified by backscatter-based bottom classes. The allocation of samples is described as area-weighted and stratified random: the proportion of samples in each mapped bottom type should roughly match that type's coverage area, while still ensuring at least two samples per bottom type, assuming up to 11 bottom types are identified. Site selection is described in practical terms (coin toss on grids within strata), reflecting an intent to keep the design unbiased while still manageable in the field.

The biological and sediment processing methods are also specified. Grab samples are immediately sieved through a 0.5 mm mesh, and the retained material is preserved in a 3.7 percent formaldehyde solution in seawater, buffered with sodium borate, and containing Rose Bengal stain to make organisms easier to detect during sorting and identification. In addition to grab samples, the project includes Sediment Profile Imagery (SPI) at each station in Year 1, with three replicate SPI camera deployments per station. SPI provides a photographed vertical slice of the sediment (penetrating roughly 20 cm depending on compaction), which helps interpret sediment layering, the sediment-water interface, and biological activity. The SPI images are intended to complement the grab samples by revealing features that grabs can miss or disturb, such as oxygen penetration depth, evidence of bioturbation and its depth, and the presence of macroalgae or seagrass. A key practical benefit noted is that SPI creates a permanent visual record that can be useful for revisits after storm events, enabling comparisons of conditions before and after disturbance.

The plan also includes additional environmental measurements at each station to contextualize habitat and community patterns. An extra grab sample at each station is used for sediment grain size analysis and for measuring total organic carbon and nitrogen, both of which are important indicators of sediment quality and ecological functioning. Water quality parameters are to be measured at both the surface and bottom using a YSI handheld meter with a 20 m cable, including salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH. These variables can influence benthic community composition and can help explain spatial differences or temporal shifts that might otherwise be attributed only to physical habitat.

The fifth deliverable is an estimate of percent change in bathymetry, bedform, and key biological structures over multiple time scales: daily, seasonal, event-based (such as after strong storms), and interannual. This change-detection goal connects directly to Hurricane Sandy recovery and longer-term climate resilience, because it is aimed at understanding how quickly and in what ways the seafloor and associated habitats move, erode, accrete, or reorganize. The notice explains that data from the initial field mapping and analysis will be used to develop AUV routing patterns for a REMUS AUV. The AUV surveys occur after the initial mapping, informed by identified hazards and features, and some mapped objects can even serve as landmarks to support later georectification of imagery. The routes are to be selected based on the distribution of sediment types, benthic biotic types, and other natural or anthropological resources, and they are intended to be repeated seasonally and after strong storms to document changes in sediments, geomorphology, and benthic biological structures on the bay side of Sandy Hook.

Administratively, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding, with the funding instrument listed as a cooperative agreement and the activity category labeled "Other" with an explanation that this is a Notice of Intent to Award rather than a competitive announcement. Only one award is expected, and eligibility is effectively limited by the single-source intent: Rutgers University is identified as the recipient. The agency is the National Park Service, and the point of contact listed is Patrick Reidy, Grants Management Specialist (phone 215-597-5949), with an NPS email referenced in the notice.

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