Native seed collection of plants with broad environmental tolerance to use for wildlife habitat restoration in the Great Basin | F19AS00367

Opportunity Information: Apply for F19AS00367

This grant opportunity, titled "Native seed collection of plants with broad environmental tolerance to use for wildlife habitat restoration in the Great Basin" (Funding Opportunity Number F19AS00367), supports research aimed at improving the success rate of habitat restoration in the Great Basin. The core problem it addresses is that restoration in this region is often difficult and expensive, and many projects fail when they attempt to re-establish native species that are most important for wildlife habitat quality and rangeland productivity. The opportunity focuses on a practical question for land managers: why do some native plant species reliably persist through major environmental shifts, and how can that knowledge be used to choose the best species and seed sources for restoration sites that are disturbed now and likely to face even harsher conditions in the future.

The scientific rationale comes from long-term ecological evidence showing that certain native plants have survived dramatic climate changes over thousands of years. Data from woodrat middens, which preserve plant material over long time scales, indicate that while some species have disappeared from particular areas or shifted their ranges as conditions warmed and dried, other species managed to maintain viable populations in the same locations despite big environmental swings. Many of these resilient species also have broad modern-day distributions, occurring across both the colder desert environments of the Great Basin and the hotter desert environments of the Mojave. That combination of deep-time persistence and wide geographic spread suggests they may have traits that make them especially tolerant of temperature, moisture, and other stresses that commonly limit restoration success.

Under this effort, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) will collect seeds from a curated list of native grasses, forbs, and shrubs identified by a UNR lab as strong candidates for persistence and broad tolerance. Seed collection will occur along an environmental gradient that spans the sagebrush steppe of the Great Basin, moves through the sagebrush/Mojave transition zone, and extends into the Mojave Desert. The idea is to capture variation among populations across different climates and habitats, then test which seed sources perform best when planted under different conditions relevant to restoration.

The project will use these collected seeds in common garden experiments placed across the targeted habitats, with a focus on measuring early-stage performance such as emergence and survival. Those early life stages are often where restoration efforts fail, so quantifying which populations establish reliably across sites is directly useful for restoration planning. In addition to the field-based common gardens, populations will be compared in controlled greenhouse experiments to identify the mechanisms behind their success. These greenhouse trials are meant to isolate and quantify characteristics that may drive resilience and establishment, helping researchers determine what traits or functional strategies are linked to high performance under stress.

A key deliverable implied by the project design is decision-relevant guidance for restoration: if the research can pinpoint the traits associated with establishment and persistence, those traits can become practical criteria for selecting not only the best populations of the focal species, but also other species or seed sources that share similar characteristics. This matters because restoration budgets are limited and the costs of repeated failure are high; concentrating efforts on the species and populations most likely to succeed increases the odds of creating durable, high-quality native plant communities that support wildlife across the Great Basin.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary opportunity issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, with funding provided through a cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.678. Eligibility is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education. The notice states it is a non-competitive award action: it is a notice of intent to make an award to the University of Nevada, Reno, with no competition expected. The award ceiling listed is $111,477, with one expected award. The opportunity was created on September 4, 2019, with an original closing date of September 11, 2019.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Native seed collection of plants with broad environmental tolerance to use for wildlife habitat restoration in the Great Basin" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.678.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 04, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 11, 2019 This is a notice of intent to make an award to the University of Nevada, Reno. No competition is expected. Do not response.. (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 $111,477.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for F19AS00367

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