Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G23AS00074

Opportunity Information: Apply for G23AS00074

The US Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a discretionary cooperative agreement through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program, specifically limited to eligible partners of the Pacific Northwest CESU. The opportunity focuses on scientific research and technical development related to harmful algal blooms (HABs), with the work centered on a 16-mile segment of the upper Illinois River known as the Starved Rock Pool, an area with a history of HAB events. The grant is intended to support the creation of a modeling tool that can help explain conditions that contribute to bloom development, especially how river movement and temperature patterns influence HAB risk.

The core project deliverable is a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water-quality model of the Starved Rock Pool. The model design is two-dimensional in the longitudinal (along-river) and vertical directions, while being laterally averaged (meaning it does not fully resolve side-to-side variability across the river, but instead represents cross-sectional conditions in an averaged way). To build the model, the recipient will generate a 2D computational grid and then carry out key calibration steps, including water balance calibration (ensuring inflows, outflows, and storage changes make physical sense), hydrodynamic calibration (aligning modeled flow behavior with observed velocities and water movement), and temperature calibration (matching simulated thermal structure and temperature dynamics to measured conditions). These calibration steps are important because HAB formation is strongly tied to how water moves, mixes, stratifies, and warms or cools over time.

Data collection and data integration are central to the approach. Real-time water-quality monitoring and streamgage information will be used to produce time series that feed the model as boundary conditions, such as upstream inputs and downstream constraints. In addition, the project includes field measurements of discrete velocity and temperature profiles throughout the water column at several locations in the study reach. Those profiles provide the observational benchmark needed to tune and validate the model so it reproduces the river's internal dynamics, not just surface conditions.

The expected model outputs are laterally averaged, two-dimensional time series of hydrodynamic behavior and water temperature across the study reach. In practical terms, this means the final product should be able to show how flow and temperature evolve along the 16-mile pool and through depth over time, which can reveal patterns like slow-moving zones, mixing behavior, and thermal layering that may create favorable conditions for harmful algal blooms. USGS intends for the model to be used as an interpretive and planning tool to better understand the roles hydrodynamics and temperature play in HAB development in this specific reach of the Illinois River.

Administratively, the opportunity is issued as a cooperative agreement (rather than a standard grant), which typically implies closer involvement and collaboration with the federal agency during the project. The funding opportunity number is G23AS00074, and it falls under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category, with CFDA number 15.808. The award ceiling listed is $33,800, and the original closing date was December 9, 2022. Eligibility is restricted to organizations that are already participating partners in the Pacific Northwest CESU network, reflecting the CESU program's purpose of leveraging established partnerships to deliver research, technical assistance, and educational outcomes tied to public resource 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 Pacific Northwest 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 2022-11-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-12-09. (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 $33,800.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G23AS00074

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