Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU | G17AS00094

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00094

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00094) is a US Geological Survey research funding call administered by the Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK). It is offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category (CFDA 15.808). The purpose of the project is to build a clearer, system-wide understanding of how invasive lake trout alter lake ecosystems, not just by affecting individual native fish species, but by reshaping whole fish communities and the aquatic food webs that support them. The results are intended to feed directly into practical planning tools that help managers anticipate where invasions are most likely to cause harm, identify which systems are most vulnerable, and improve mitigation strategies over the long term.

At the center of the work is the need to untangle the “who eats whom” relationships in invaded and managed lakes, and to quantify how those relationships change under different conditions. Invasive lake trout can function as strong top predators, which often means they do not merely compete with native fish but can restructure trophic linkages across multiple levels of the food web. This opportunity is looking for research that moves beyond basic presence/absence or simple abundance trends and instead produces a quantitative analysis of food web structure and trophic connections. In practical terms, that implies data-rich approaches that can describe trophic pathways, energy flow, and shifts in predator-prey dynamics in lakes that differ in invasion intensity and management intervention.

The project’s objectives are organized around four connected research needs. First, the study must assess food web changes linked to lake trout invasion across five lakes representing a gradient of lake trout impacts. This “varying degrees” framing signals that the agency wants comparative work capable of detecting patterns across lakes, such as how food web structure changes as an invasion progresses or intensifies. Second, the project must evaluate the food web effects of continued aggressive suppression efforts in Quartz and Logging Lakes, where lake trout control measures are already underway. This objective emphasizes management as an experiment of sorts: suppression can reduce lake trout numbers, but the ecological response may be complex, potentially involving rebounds or shifts in native fish, prey communities, and the broader web of interactions. Third, the project must examine food web changes associated with bull trout conservation translocations in Grace Lake, reflecting a second type of intervention: the deliberate movement or introduction of imperiled native bull trout to support conservation goals. That component is meant to capture how adding or re-establishing native predators or competitors might influence trophic relationships, community composition, and recovery trajectories in a lake system.

The fourth objective ties everything together by requiring that the combined information be used to develop and deliver data-driven decision support tools. The emphasis on “decision support” and “long-term adaptive management” indicates that the end products are expected to be more than academic findings. The agency is looking for outputs that can guide ongoing management in Glacier National Park (referenced as GNP in the description), specifically for bull trout conservation and the protection of native aquatic biodiversity more broadly. Decision tools in this context typically means structured, model-based resources that help managers evaluate risk, compare scenarios (for example, different suppression intensities or translocation strategies), and update actions as new monitoring data become available. The description also explicitly mentions robust models to predict invasion risk and vulnerability, reinforcing that predictive capability and management applicability are key deliverables.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity was created on June 22, 2017, with an original closing date of July 7, 2017. The expected number of awards was one, with an award ceiling of $50,000, indicating a relatively focused, single-recipient project rather than a broad multi-award program. Eligibility is listed as “Others,” with details referenced in the opportunity’s additional eligibility information, which is typical for CESU-associated opportunities where eligibility may be limited to participating CESU network institutions or otherwise defined partner categories. Overall, the grant is structured to support targeted applied research that quantifies food web responses to invasion, suppression, and conservation translocation, and then translates those findings into usable predictive and decision-support tools for adaptive management of native fish and lake ecosystems.

• 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, Rocky Mountain 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 Jun 22, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 07, 2017. (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 $50,000.00 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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