Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Florida/Caribbean CESU | G17AS00024

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00024

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Florida/Caribbean CESU grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00024) is a US Geological Survey (USGS), Department of the Interior funding call aimed at supporting applied research tied directly to Everglades restoration decisions. Offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.808 (Science and Technology and other Research and Development), the award is intended for a CESU partner (eligibility is limited to organizations that qualify under the CESU framework described in the opportunity materials). The program anticipates making a single award, with an estimated maximum (award ceiling) of $179,699.

The core purpose of the project is to study how aquatic communities respond when water movement across the Everglades landscape is deliberately altered at a large scale. The opportunity focuses especially on aquatic consumers, meaning organisms higher in the food web such as fish and other animals that feed on aquatic plants, invertebrates, or smaller fish. The planned manipulation includes breaching a levee (to reconnect areas that have been hydrologically separated), increasing water flow velocities (to better approximate historic sheet flow patterns), and changing canal depths adjacent to Everglades marshes. In practical terms, the research is meant to provide evidence about ecological outcomes when engineered infrastructure is modified to move water more naturally through marsh systems.

This work is framed around the broader restoration objective of improving the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water deliveries to key Everglades landscape features, while still meeting human and operational needs such as drainage, flood control, water retention, water supply, irrigation, and transportation. In other words, the grant is not just about ecological recovery in isolation; it is about understanding ecological tradeoffs and benefits within a managed water system that has to continue serving multiple functions.

A major point of uncertainty the project is meant to address involves canal backfilling. While there is general agreement that degrading or breaching levees can help re-establish sheet flow, there is ongoing debate about whether canals must be fully backfilled to marsh elevation (complete backfill) to restore ecosystem structure and function. The controversy is especially relevant for canals oriented perpendicular to the direction of flow, because these canals may not necessarily act as hydraulic short circuits that divert marsh sheet flow in the same way other canal configurations might. The underlying scientific question is whether a physical surface connection across these features is absolutely required to restore the ecological function of the ridge-and-slough system and overall ecosystem connectivity, or whether partial measures and alternatives can achieve similar ecological benefits.

The opportunity highlights two practical arguments for investigating alternatives to complete canal backfill. First, the existing canal network supports a highly valued sport fishery, so eliminating canals or significantly altering them could create social and recreational impacts and potentially reduce a locally prized resource. Second, completely backfilling all canals may not be economically feasible at the scale required, implying that restoration planners need credible science on whether less expensive or less disruptive approaches can still deliver meaningful ecological improvements. Taken together, the grant is designed to generate decision-relevant science that helps resolve a real management dilemma: how to balance hydrologic restoration goals with costs and stakeholder values, using measurable responses of aquatic communities as key indicators.

Administratively, the opportunity was created on December 7, 2016, with an original closing date of December 23, 2016. It is structured as a cooperative agreement, which typically implies substantial involvement from the federal agency during the project (for example, coordination on study design, data needs, field logistics, or integration of findings into management decisions). The expected outcome is a set of research results that clarify ecological responses to levee breaching and canal depth changes, and that directly inform whether complete canal backfill is necessary or whether alternative restoration designs can better balance ecological function, fishery considerations, and economic constraints.

• The Department of the Interior, Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Florida/Caribbean CESU" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 07, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 23, 2016. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $179,699.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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