Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Lakes Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G21AS00564

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00564

This funding opportunity (G21AS00564) is a discretionary USGS cooperative agreement aimed specifically at partners affiliated with the Great Lakes Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The project focus is research and development in water quality modeling, centered on water temperature in streams and reservoirs. USGS frames temperature as a "master variable" because it influences many outcomes that matter to ecosystems and management decisions, including aquatic habitat suitability, evaporation, greenhouse gas exchange at the water-air interface, and even the operational efficiency of thermoelectric power generation.

A major motivation behind the award is that, while USGS collects a lot of stream temperature data and stream temperature is among the most commonly measured water characteristics, monitoring still has major gaps across both time and geography. Those gaps make it difficult to answer broad-scale questions or provide consistent, decision-ready temperature information to stakeholders without modeling. USGS also highlights a key limitation in typical approaches: stream and lake (or reservoir) temperatures are often modeled separately even though they are tightly linked. Water entering a reservoir affects reservoir temperature, and reservoirs can strongly alter the thermal regime of downstream river reaches. In many systems, reservoir operations can intentionally change downstream temperatures through managed releases, so being able to anticipate the timing, volume, and thermal effects of releases can directly support better water management decisions.

USGS and collaborators are developing process-guided machine learning approaches for streams and lakes/reservoirs that try to combine physical realism with the predictive strengths of modern machine learning, including in both data-rich and data-sparse settings (with Read et al., 2019 cited as an example of this direction). The proposed work under this opportunity is meant to address important temperature-related processes that are currently missing, poorly represented, or not well predicted within that process-guided deep learning framework. The description points to several specific research gaps and needs: improving representation of how reservoir releases influence downstream temperatures; enabling sub-daily (higher frequency) temperature predictions to better capture extremes rather than just daily or coarser averages; integrating additional data sources that may be noisier or lower accuracy, such as satellite-derived surface temperature; translating model outputs to finer-resolution stream segments; improving predictions in and below reservoirs when available data vary widely; and incorporating processes that matter for long-term change assessments, such as groundwater contributions to stream temperature dynamics.

From an administrative standpoint, the award instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally implies substantial involvement or collaboration with USGS during the project rather than a hands-off grant. The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, and the CFDA number listed is 15.808. The opportunity lists an award ceiling of $180,000 and indicates expected awards (the exact number is not specified in the provided text). The opportunity was created on 2021-06-23 and had an original closing date of 2021-07-23. Eligibility is restricted to entities that are official participating partners in the Great Lakes CESU network, reflecting the CESU program’s purpose of structuring partnerships that deliver research, technical assistance, and education in support of federal science and management needs.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Lakes Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" 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 2021-06-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-07-23. (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 $180,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G21AS00564

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