DE-FOA-0003420.000001.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE)

OFFICE OF SCIENCE (SC)

BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (BER)

EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS SCIENCE RESEARCH

IN THE SOUTHEAST U.S.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA) NUMBER:

DE-FOA-0003420

FOA TYPE: Amendment 000001

CFDA NUMBER: 81.049

Amendment 000001 is issued to incorporate a list of excluded topics on page 9 and to correct an email address on page 48.

FOA Issue Date: July 25, 2024 Submission Deadline for Pre-Applications:

September 19, 2024 at 5:00 PM ET A Pre-Application is required.

Pre-Application Response Date: October 10, 2024 at 5:00 PM ET Submission Deadline for Applications: November 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM ET

FOA Summary

FOA Name and Number: Earth and Environmental Systems Science Research in the Southeast

U.S., DE-FOA-0003420

Deadline for pre-applications: Thursday, September 19, 2024 at 5:00 PM ET, submitted in

PAMS

Deadline for applications: Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM ET, submitted in Grants.gov

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for collaborative research in the Southeast U.S. Starting in the fall of 2024, the third Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility in Bankhead National Forest in Alabama will initiate full operations to provide observations to improve process understanding and model representations of aerosol, cloud, and land-atmosphere interactions, together with key cross-coupling of those areas to quantify land-atmosphere feedbacks and aerosol-cloud interactions. This FOA will consider applications that address science challenges that are within scope of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR), Earth and Environmental System Modeling (EESM), and Environmental System Science (ESS) sub programs. Specifically, this FOA focuses on measurements, experiments, field data, modeling, analysis, and synthesis to provide improved understanding and representation of ecosystems, watersheds, atmospheric processes, and regional modeling in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of models that span from individual processes to Earth-system scales. This FOA will encompass four topics 1) vegetation and land-atmosphere interactions; 2) spatial heterogeneity and scaling; 3) convection, clouds, precipitation, and biogenic aerosols; and

4) extreme events and disturbance. Proposed research may integrate more than one topic. The inclusion of underrepresented, minority serving or emerging research institutions as part of research teams is encouraged.

Eligible applicants:

• All types of domestic applicants are eligible to apply, except nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995.

• DOE/NNSA National Laboratories are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application.

• Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs are not eligible to submit applications under this FOA but may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application.

• Other Federal Agencies are eligible to submit applications under this FOA and may be proposed as subrecipients under another organization’s application.

Total funding available: $12,000,000 in FY 2025 funds Awards expected to range from $300,000 to $1,000,000 Awards expected to be 3 years in duration

Applications will be subject to merit review and the application of program policy factors for selection.

For additional details, the full FOA immediately follows.

Table of Contents

SECTION I – FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

SECTION II – AWARD INFORMATION

II.A. TYPE OF AWARD INSTRUMENT

II.B. ESTIMATED FUNDING

II.C. MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM AWARD SIZE

II.D. EXPECTED NUMBER OF AWARDS

II.E. ANTICIPATED AWARD SIZE

II.F. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

II.G. TYPE OF APPLICATION

SECTION III – ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

III.A. ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

III.B. COST SHARING

III.C. ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUALS

III.D. LIMITATIONS ON SUBMISSIONS

SECTION IV – APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

IV.A. ADDRESS TO REQUEST APPLICATION PACKAGE

IV.B. LETTER OF INTENT (LOI) AND PRE-APPLICATION

IV.C. GRANTS.GOV APPLICATION SUBMISSION AND RECEIPT PROCEDURES

IV.D. CONTENT AND APPLICATION FORMS

IV.E. SUBMISSIONS FROM SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

IV.F. SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES

SECTION V - APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

V.A. CRITERIA

V.B. REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

V.C. ANTICIPATED NOTICE OF SELECTION AND AWARD DATES

SECTION VI – AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

VI.A. AWARD NOTICES

VI.B. ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS

VI.C. REPORTING

VI.D. REPORTING OF MATTERS RELATED TO RECIPIENT INTEGRITY AND

PERFORMANCE (DECEMBER 2015)

VI.E. INTERIM CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE...47

SECTION VII - QUESTIONS/AGENCY CONTACTS

VII.A. QUESTIONS

VII.B. AGENCY CONTACTS

SECTION VIII – SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

VIII.A. HOW-TO GUIDES

VIII.B. ADMINISTRATIVE AND NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS

VIII.C. REFERENCE MATERIAL

i

UPDATES AND REMINDERS

RECOMMENDATION

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) encourages you to register in all systems as soon as possible. You are also encouraged to submit pre-applications, and applications well before the deadline.

PROMOTING INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE RESEARCH (PIER) PLAN

All new and renewal applications must provide a Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plan as an appendix to the project narrative. Please read the instructions in Section IV and the associated review criteria in Section V.

INTERAGENCY FORMATS FOR CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Interagency common instructions for preparing current and pending support and biographical sketches have been developed (https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/nstc_disclosure.jsp) and have been adopted by DOE. The Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) system at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/ has been updated to support the forthcoming common instructions and formats. The fillable PDFs provided by the National Science Foundation are no longer available. SC strongly encourages all applicants to use the online SciENcv system to ensure that their documents are prepared in the appropriate format with the least inconvenience.

INDIVIDUALS WHO SHOULD NOT SERVE AS MERIT REVIEWERS

Follow the updated instructions in Section VIII and consider the use of the Collaborator Template available at https://science.osti.gov/grants/Policy-and-Guidance/Agreement-Forms. Do not include this list as part of the biographical sketch.

LIVING WAGES

SC is committed to ensuring that students, trainees, and postdoctoral fellows are paid a fair and equitable wage sufficient to allow a reasonable standard of living. Applicant institutions are strongly encouraged to examine their institutional pay scales to ensure that all personnel earn a living wage. The provision of fellowships, traineeships, stipends, honoraria, subsistence allowances, and other similar payments may be allowable expenses on SC financial assistance awards, per 2 CFR 200.430, § 200.431, and § 200.466. For graduate students, SC considers a reasonable living wage to be an annual income of $45,000, excluding benefits.

SC STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT

The DOE SC is fully and unconditionally committed to fostering safe, diverse, equitable, and inclusive work, research, and funding environments that value mutual respect and personal integrity. SC is committed to advancing belonging, accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion across the portfolio of activities we sponsor. SC’s effective stewardship and promotion https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/nstc_disclosure.jsp https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/ https://science.osti.gov/grants/Policy-and-Guidance/Agreement-Forms ii of safe, accessible, diverse, and inclusive workplaces that value and celebrate the diversity of people, ideas, cultures, and educational backgrounds across the country and that foster a sense of belonging in our scientific community is foundational to delivering on our mission. We are committed to promoting people from all backgrounds, including individuals and communities that were historically underrepresented and minoritized in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and the activities we sponsor in recognition of our responsibility to serve the public. We also recognize that harnessing a broad range of views, expertise, and experiences drives scientific and technological innovation and enables the SC community to push the frontiers of scientific knowledge for U.S. prosperity and security. Discrimination and harassment undermine SC’s ability to achieve its mission by reducing productivity, discouraging, or inhibiting talent retention and career advancement, and weakening the integrity of the SC enterprise overall. SC does not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, including sexual or non-sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation, violence, threats of violence, retaliation, or other disruptive behavior at institutions receiving SC funding or other locations where activities funded by SC are carried out. All applicants and collaborators should familiarize themselves with the SC Statement of Commitment available at https://science.osti.gov/SW- DEI/SC-Statement-of-Commitment.

UPDATING YOUR PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PAMS) PROFILE

All applicants are encouraged to update their profiles in the PAMS website at https://pamspublic.science.energy.gov regularly, at least annually, to ensure SC has your most up to date information. The PAMS profile now requires that individuals provide responses to the demographic related fields. SC strongly encourages personnel at applicant and recipient institutions, including Principal Investigators (PIs), Co-PIs, and other Key Personnel, to provide their demographic information. By providing your demographic information, you are assisting with SC’s continued commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in its business practices. Alternatively, for information you wish not to disclose, please select, “Do not wish to provide.” Your individual demographic information will not be shared with peer reviewers and the information in your PAMS profile is protected by the requirements established in the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. Aggregate, anonymized demographic information may be shared with confidential review committees who are charged to evaluate the quality and efficacy of SC’s business practices. For example, summary statistics of all applicants to or award selections from a particular SC FOA may be reviewed by a Committee of Visitors.

PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF) GENERATION

The project narrative in an application must be one single machine-readable PDF file that contains the DOE Title Page, project narrative, all required appendices, and other attachments.

This single PDF file may not be scanned from a printed document and must be attached in Field 8 on the Grants.gov form. This must be a plain PDF file consisting of text, numbers, and images without editable fields, signatures, passwords, redactions, or other advanced features available in some PDF-compatible software. The project narrative will be read by SC staff using the full version of Adobe Acrobat: Please ensure that the narrative is readable in Acrobat. If combining multiple files into one research narrative, ensure that a PDF portfolio or binder is not created. If creating PDF files using any software other than Adobe Acrobat, please use a “Print to PDF” or https://science.osti.gov/SW-DEI/SC-Statement-of-Commitment https://science.osti.gov/SW-DEI/SC-Statement-of-Commitment https://pamspublic.science.energy.gov/ iii equivalent process to ensure that all content is visible in the project narrative. Once a project narrative has been assembled, please submit the combined project narrative file through a “Print to PDF” or equivalent process to ensure that all content is visible in one PDF file that can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat. Review your submission to ensure that blank pages are not present.

iv

Checklist for Avoiding Common Errors:

Item Issue Applications Submitted in Grants.gov. Do not submit applications in PAMS or FedConnect.

Grants.gov Submission Ensure that applications are submitted under the correct Opportunity Number.

Standard Form (SF)-424 Research and Related (R&R):

- Attach nothing to field 20

- Attach nothing to field 21

SF-424 Research and Related Other Project Information form:

- Attach the abstract to field 7

- Attach the project narrative, with all appendices, to field 8

- Attach nothing to field 9

- Attach nothing to field 10

- Attach nothing to field 11

- Attach the list of individuals who should not serve as merit reviewers (Collaborator Template) to field 12

- Do not attach other files to field 12

- NOTE: Files attached to field 12 will not be shared with merit reviewers.

Pre-Applications

- Submit your pre-application in PAMS.

- Do not submit your pre-application in Grants.gov.

- Do not attach your pre-application to the SF- 424 Research and Related (R&R) form.

- Follow the instructions in Section IV for the preparation of a pre-application.

Page Limits Strictly followed throughout application, including particular attention to:

- Project narrative and appendices

- Biographical sketches

- Data Management Plans (DMPs)

- Promoting Inclusive and Equitable

Research (PIER) Plan

- Letter(s) of Collaboration or

Authorization, if any Personally Identifiable Information None present in the application v

Item Issue Project Narrative Composed of one PDF file including all appendices (bibliography, facilities, equipment, DMP, PIER)

Project Summary / Abstract Name of PI, PI’s institutional affiliation(s), Co-Investigator(s), Co-Investigator’s institutional affiliation(s)

DOE Title Page Follow instructions closely Budget Use current negotiated indirect cost and fringe benefit rates Budget Justification (attached to budget) Justify all requested costs Biographical Sketches Follow page limits strictly and do not include list of collaborators. Attach the biographical sketch to the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form.

Current and Pending Support Ensure complete listing of all activities, regardless of source of funding. Attach the current and pending support to the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form.

List of Individuals who Should not Serve as Merit Reviews

Attach to field 12 of the SF-424 Research and Related Other Project Information form.

Data Management Plans (DMP) - If referring to an experiment’s DMP, describe the relationship to the proposed research.

- Include a DMP even if no experimental data is expected.

Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plan

PIER Plans are required for new and renewal applications.

Section I – FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

GENERAL INQUIRIES ABOUT THIS FOA SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO:

Technical/Scientific Program Contacts:

Dr. Renu Joseph

Renu.Joseph@science.doe.gov

Dr. Shaima Nasiri

Shaima.Nasiri@science.doe.gov

Dr. Daniel Stover

Daniel.Stover@science.doe.gov

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

Section 646 of Public Law 95-91, U.S. Department of Energy Organization Act Section 901, et seq. of Public Law 109-58, Energy Policy Act of 2005

APPLICABLE REGULATIONS

Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, codified at 2 CFR 200 U.S. Department of Energy Financial Assistance Rules, codified at 2 CFR 910 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Rule, codified at 10

CFR 605

SUMMARY

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for collaborative research in the Southeast U.S. Starting in the fall of 2024, the third Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility in Bankhead National Forest in Alabama will initiate full operations to provide observations to improve process understanding and model representations of aerosol, cloud, and land-atmosphere interactions, together with key cross-coupling of those areas to quantify land-atmosphere feedbacks and aerosol-cloud interactions. This FOA will consider applications that address science challenges that are within scope of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR), Earth and Environmental System Modeling (EESM), and Environmental System Science (ESS) sub programs. Specifically, this FOA focuses on measurements, experiments, field data, modeling, analysis, and synthesis to provide improved understanding and representation of ecosystems, watersheds, atmospheric processes, and regional modeling in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of models that span from individual processes to Earth-system scales. This FOA will encompass four topics 1) vegetation and land-atmosphere interactions; 2) spatial heterogeneity and scaling; 3) convection, clouds, precipitation, and biogenic aerosols; and

4) extreme events and disturbance. Proposed research may integrate more than one topic. The mailto:Renu.Joseph@science.doe.gov mailto:Shaima.Nasiri@science.doe.gov mailto:Daniel.Stover@science.doe.gov inclusion of underrepresented, minority serving or emerging research institutions as part of research teams is encouraged.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Program Objective

Background

In August 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility that brought together representatives of the scientific community to discuss critical climate challenges where ARM observations could impact and improve Earth system models (https://science.osti.gov/-/media/ber/pdf/community-resources/2019/ARM_Mobile_Facility_Workshop_Report.pdf). In this workshop, the Southeast United States was identified as a priority region for further study. The Southeast U.S. is a warm and humid region with abundant locally forced, atmospheric convection across the region and enhanced convection along coasts. The strong atmospheric coupling with the surface supports the need to study the impacts of variations in land surface characteristics on cloud climatology and transition mechanisms between cloud regimes as well as their associated precipitation. Large amounts of secondary organic aerosols and scattered urban populations can also serve to allow for novel observations to support studies of aerosols’ radiative impacts and the interaction between naturally produced and urban aerosols. Additionally, the land surface, boundary layer, vegetation, and aerosol properties in the Southeast U.S. are markedly different from those seen at ARM’s fixed observatory in Oklahoma, allowing opportunities to explore new atmospheric research questions that are relevant to the Southeast U.S.

Following this workshop, BER approved a five-year deployment of the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) to the Bankhead National Forest in Alabama to provide observations to improve process understanding and model representations of aerosol, cloud, and land-atmosphere interactions, together with key cross-coupling of those areas to quantify land-atmosphere feedbacks and aerosol-cloud interactions. Further information on ARM’s Bankhead National Forest (BNF) observatory, including planned timelines and instrumentation, is available at https://arm.gov/capabilities/observatories/bnf. The BNF Science Plan, which outlines scientific objectives for the deployment is available at:

https://www.arm.gov/publications/programdocs/doe-sc-arm-23-035.pdf.

In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a follow-on workshop, the Southeastern Land-Atmosphere Research Opportunities (SELARO) workshop, to identify gaps in scientific understanding of terrestrial processes in the southeastern U.S. and to explore opportunities to coordinate and leverage research efforts across the region with the AMF3 deployment (https://ess.science.energy.gov/southeast-land-atmosphere-report/). That workshop noted that the Southeast U.S. supports a wide variety of ecosystems including natural forests, scrub, grasslands, and wetlands, as well as managed forests, farmland, and developed areas, all influenced by a generally warm and humid climate. Strong climate forcing from the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, and topography result in climate diversity that ranges from warm monsoonal conditions in the southern portion of the region to more temperate conditions in the https://arm.gov/ https://science.osti.gov/-/media/ber/pdf/community-resources/2019/ARM_Mobile_Facility_Workshop_Report.pdf https://science.osti.gov/-/media/ber/pdf/community-resources/2019/ARM_Mobile_Facility_Workshop_Report.pdf https://arm.gov/capabilities/observatories/bnf https://www.arm.gov/publications/programdocs/doe-sc-arm-23-035.pdf https://ess.science.energy.gov/southeast-land-atmosphere-report/ northern portion of the region. In addition, the Southeast U.S. is subject to extreme events such as hurricanes, heat waves, drought, flooding, and wildfire, which result in large-scale disturbance of vegetative processes, and changes in hydro-biogeochemical cycling and land cover.

Furthermore, rapid growth of urban centers and changing land management practices result in increased stress and vulnerability of natural Southeastern ecosystems. This combination of natural and human processes is expected to cause dynamically changing interactions; however, data is currently lacking to appropriately represent these interactions and their feedbacks to the Earth system in predictive models.

The SELARO workshop identified three main research areas: flux and land-atmosphere interactions, ecology/biogeochemistry/disturbance, and hydrology/ecohydrology/terrestrial-aquatic interface. Across these research areas, common themes and challenges included spatial heterogeneity, changes in vegetation growing season and productivity due to climate change, shifts in disturbance regimes, land management and land use changes, and hydroclimatic feedbacks.

Research supported by this FOA must address one or more of the following programmatic areas within BER’s Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD).

• ASR

The goal of ASR is to quantify the interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, and radiation to improve understanding of key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes that affect the Earth’s radiative balance and hydrological cycle, especially processes that limit the predictive ability of regional and global models. For the most part, ASR investments are based on measurements of radiation, aerosols, clouds, precipitation, thermodynamics, turbulence, and state variables from the ARM user facility. ARM’s continuous observational datasets are supplemented with process models, laboratory studies, and shorter-duration ground-based and airborne field campaigns to target specific atmospheric processes in different atmospheric and climatic regimes and across a range of spatial and temporal scales. ASR’s four priority research areas are focused on reducing the large uncertainties in Earth system prediction that can be traced to: aerosol processes, warm boundary-layer processes, convective processes, and high-latitude processes. More information on ASR can be found at https://asr.science.energy.gov/.

• EESM

EESM develops and applies integrated modeling frameworks to rapidly advance integrative science to achieve greater predictability of climate change over a wide range over multiple time and space scales. More specifically, EESM includes development of the fully coupled Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), global and regional hierarchical models, multisector dynamics models, and data-driven computational analytic tools, to advance a predictive understanding of the Earth system with an emphasis on significant drivers, feedbacks, and uncertainties within the integrated Earth system. With its broad focus, EESM strives to understand how global climate signals project onto regional scales, how those regional signals affect critical human systems, how people will respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions, and how resulting scale-aware feedbacks influence the predictability of climate and environmental systems. EESM has emphasized research on https://asr.science.energy.gov/ extreme events, impacts, and resilience; coastal systems; integrated water cycle, floods, droughts, and sea level rise; high latitudes and impacts on lower latitudes; biogeochemistry, carbon cycle, and feedbacks; urban systems, urban morphology and urban-rural gradients;

and energy transitions and changing, connected infrastructure. The resulting highly integrated modeling capabilities and suite of integrated modeling tools are a hallmark of EESM, as is developing and deploying a broad suite of advanced technologies in pursuit of its research goals, including machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI/ML), hierarchical and multi-scale modeling, Digital Earth, exascale computing, advanced software architectures, local to regional test beds, and a range of evaluation tools, from benchmarking to uncertainty quantification. Additionally, EESM is fully committed to open science and strengthening its research-to-operations-to research framing. More information on EESM can be found at https://climatemodeling.science.energy.gov/.

• ESS

The goal of ESS is to advance an integrated, robust, and scale-aware predictive understanding of terrestrial systems and their interdependent microbial, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and physical processes. To support this goal, ESS uses a systems approach to develop an integrative framework to elucidate the complex processes and controls on the structure, function, feedbacks, and dynamics of terrestrial systems, that span from molecular to global scales and extend from the bedrock through the soil, rhizosphere, and vegetation to the atmosphere. The ESS scope advances foundational process knowledge with an emphasis on understudied ecosystems. Supported research emphasizes ecological and hydro-biogeochemical linkages among system components and characterization of processes across interfaces (e.g., terrestrial-aquatic, coastal, urban) to address key knowledge gaps and uncertainties across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Incorporation of scientific findings into process and system models is an important aspect of the ESS strategy, both to improve predictive understanding as well as to enable the identification of new research questions and directions. ESS research includes lab- and field-based studies as well as model development, and will continue to use the Modeling-Experimental (ModEx) paradigm (https://ess.science.energy.gov/modex/) to examine terrestrial and watershed system properties that exhibit large uncertainties in their functions, feedbacks, and dynamics, and that are insufficiently captured in open-source or community models. Such models are used to generate predictions, and these are compared against laboratory as well as field observations to identify critical uncertainties and inform future research directions. More information on ESS can be found at https://ess.science.energy.gov/.

These programs seek to coordinate and collaborate closely with other research activities within BER, other DOE research programs, research efforts supported by other federal agencies, and capabilities available at a variety of DOE user facilities. The EESSD Strategic Plan (https://ess.science.energy.gov/eessd-strategic-plan/) highlights scientific grand challenge needs for basic research that address key uncertainties in the understanding of Earth system components, as well as complex uncertainties that arise from the interactions and interdependencies of these components in the coupled Earth system.

More information on BER activities can be found at https://science.osti.gov/ber/.

https://climatemodeling.science.energy.gov/ https://ess.science.energy.gov/modex/ https://ess.science.energy.gov/ https://ess.science.energy.gov/eessd-strategic-plan/ https://science.osti.gov/ber/

Application Information

All submissions (pre-applications and applications) to this FOA are required to clearly delineate knowledge gaps limiting the understanding of fundamental atmospheric, ecological, or watershed processes and describe how these knowledge gaps link to existing needs/gaps in state-of-the-art models that motivate the proposed research. Applicants must propose specific science questions and/or testable hypotheses and approaches to resolve these knowledge gaps and are expected to provide details on how the results of the proposed research will be used to improve the predictability and sophistication of atmospheric, hydrologic, terrestrial ecosystem, regional and/or Earth system models (ESMs).

Science Research Topics

For this FOA, we consider the domain of the Southeast U.S. to include states bounded by the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, respectively, the Mississippi River to the west, and extends through Tennessee and North Carolina. While the foci of the FOA topics are limited to this region, modeling in response to these topics can include larger meteorological patterns and broader interactions of terrestrial, coastal, and atmospheric processes that affect this region. Requests for research support under this FOA must address one or more of the following research topics. Principal Investigators (PIs) should clearly indicate to which topic or topics they are responding. Applications responding to multiple topics will not receive special priority over applications responding to a single topic.

Topic 1: Vegetation and Land-Atmosphere Interactions

Basic understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between the atmospheric boundary layer and terrestrial ecosystems, and predicting how these interactions will change under future climate and disturbance scenarios in the Southeast U.S., is a recognized knowledge gap.

Exchanges of water, energy, gases, and particles between the land and atmosphere provide important influences on atmospheric and terrestrial vegetation processes but are poorly constrained in state-of-the-art models. Eddy covariance methodologies have provided powerful insights on local-scale land-atmosphere exchanges, however, larger synoptic or meso-scale processes are not readily observable in the footprint of an eddy covariance tower. Additionally, there are knowledge gaps of turbulent flows across vegetation types and within different forest structures, as well as the spatial interactions across landforms (e.g., natural to urban gradients or forested to non-forested gradients). Furthermore, vegetation has important regulatory control on several hydrological and biogeochemical pathways and processes. Unfortunately, these ecophysiological controls on land-atmosphere interactions are poorly understood or represented in ecosystem and regional models, especially under the influence of chronic and acute disturbances.

The goal of this topic is to improve our predictive understanding of land-atmosphere interactions in the Southeast U.S. While the focus is on smaller/local scale (e.g., vegetation and ecohydrological processes), applicants are encouraged to consider their influence on larger scale land-atmosphere interactions. Specifically, we seek applications that focus on the coupling of land-atmosphere processes and interactions, with a particular emphasis on the role of vegetation processes. Examples of research under this topic could include:

• Improved representation of the role of vegetation in the regulation of water and carbon cycling through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (e.g., ecohydrology) and, where possible, their implications on atmospheric processes such as atmospheric boundary-layer turbulence or boundary layer structure.

• Improved understanding of spatial and temporal changes in land-atmosphere fluxes (e.g., water, carbon, etc.) across landscape and disturbance gradients such as natural to urban or forest to agricultural.

• Advanced understanding of the partitioning between evaporation and transpiration.

• Elucidating the production and regulation of biogenic volatile organic compounds

(BVOCs) from vegetation as an indicator for ecosystem stress and/or their role in atmospheric aerosol formation.

Integrated experiments, observations, and modeling of vegetation-atmosphere processes and feedbacks across soil-plant-atmosphere continuum that lead to better translation from individual scales to larger spatial and temporal scales are encouraged. Submissions to this topic should have a clear pathway to upscaling results beyond individual plot, site, or focal species.

Topic 2: Spatial Heterogeneity and Scaling

The Southeast U.S. is characteristically heterogeneous due to the complex, overlapping distributions of vegetation, soils, topography, disturbance, and human land use over both long and short temporal and spatial scales. This multi-scale heterogeneity affects carbon, nutrient, water, and energy processes and fluxes, complicating efforts to generalize, model, and predict coupled biogeochemical processes. Uncertainties associated with spatial heterogeneity manifest at scales ranging from tens of m2 to hundreds of km2. At the larger scale, there are considerable uncertainties regarding how the spatial arrangement of land cover/use types affects processes such as coupled biogeochemistry, hydrology, and atmospheric interactions. However, at the small scale, microtopographic differences at the soil surface and vegetation may be manifested in distinct patterns in biogeochemistry (carbon-water, carbon-nitrogen, etc.), leaf level turbulence, aerosol production, etc. in sites that experience seasonal or periodic fluctuations in temperature as well as variations of local water table elevation. Bridging or crossing these scales is a unique challenge that requires scientific attention, such as the impacts of heterogeneous precipitation events on local to regional flooding and nutrient flow. Furthermore, micro scale heterogeneity, (e.g., subsurface soil heterogeneity or aerosol precursor production) can drive biogeochemical processes that have profound influences at higher organizational scales, but it is not typically refined or represented by a non-dynamic surrogate in modeling applications. Improvements to state-of-the-art models require an understanding of how patch/plot-scale processes aggregate upwards across a diverse landscape mosaic and how changes in landscape heterogeneity are represented and transferable key ecological and atmospheric processes.

The goal of this topic is to improve our predictive understanding of spatial heterogeneity of key coupled ecological, hydrological, and atmospheric processes in the Southeast U.S. Of particular interest are applications that consider the transferability of process knowledge between appropriate spatial and temporal scales. Examples of research under this topic could include:

• Improved understanding of coupled biogeochemical transformations across land cover gradients, as well as rhizosphere-plant interactions/transformations across scales.

• Transformation of coupled atmospheric, biogeochemical, or hydrological processes due to heterogenous precipitation events.

• Improved model representation of how coupling of patch-scale processes scale across a diverse landscape mosaic and how changes are influenced by landscape heterogeneity.

• New insights on the influence of disturbances (e.g., droughts, floods, wildfires, and extreme storms) on coupled ecological and/or atmospheric processes.

• Improved description of the role surface heterogeneity plays in driving the spatial and temporal patterns of surface-atmosphere turbulence, mass, and energy exchanges and the evolution of thermals within the atmospheric boundary layer.

Submissions to this topic should have a clear pathway to scale results beyond individual plot, site, or focal species.

Topic 3: Convection, Clouds, Precipitation, and Biogenic Aerosols in the Southeast U.S.

Atmospheric processes in the Southeast U.S. are profoundly impacted by several features including abundant atmospheric moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the characteristically heterogenous land surface with varied topography and vegetation types strongly influence the spatio-temporal patterns of atmospheric thermodynamic variables including temperature, humidity, and sensible and latent heat fluxes. The abundance of atmospheric moisture and solar heating leads the Southeast U.S. to experience frequent convection, cloud formation, and precipitation. Locally forced convection is a frequent occurrence in this region throughout the year. This locally forced convection has a diurnal cycle and is strongly influenced by the high degree of local thermodynamic variability. Synoptically forced organized convection, including mesoscale convective systems and severe thunderstorms, is prevalent in the spring and fall. The timing and spatial distribution of shallow cloud formation, transition to deeper convection, and onset of precipitation in the Southeast U.S. have been challenging for models to represent, as have the factors leading to organization of both locally-and synoptically-forced convection and development of mesoscale convective systems. Another characteristic of atmospheric processes in the Southeast U.S. is the large number of biogenic aerosols. Some of these aerosols, such as pollen, are sourced from primary emissions and are referred to as primary biological aerosol particles. Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) can form through chemical reactions involving biogenic volatile organic compounds emitted by vegetation. Biogenic aerosol lifecycle, distribution, and climatology are currently not well-represented in models, nor are the impacts of these aerosols on cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice-nucleating particle (INP) populations and cloud properties and processes.

This topic is focused on improving fundamental understanding, predictability, and model representation of climate-relevant convection, cloud, precipitation, and biogenic aerosol processes in the Southeast U.S. Applicants are encouraged to consider how the thermodynamic and land surface environments in the Southeast U.S. interact to affect these atmospheric processes. Of particular interest are applications focused on improved atmospheric process understanding; development of improved cloud, aerosol, and convection parameterizations;

analysis of model performance; and/or other forms of model development. The use of AMF3 observations is strongly encouraged for this topic; additional observational data sources should be considered as appropriate. Research under this topic could focus on:

• The dynamic, thermodynamic, and microphysical factors regulating the life cycle of convective clouds in the Southeast U.S., including onset, organization, timing, and precipitation properties;

• The impacts of land-atmosphere coupling and environmental heterogeneity on cloud formation and transitions between cloud regimes; and/or

• The life cycle, radiative effects, and impacts on cloud properties and processes involving Southeast U.S. biogenic aerosols.

Topic 4. Extreme Events and Disturbance in the Southeast U.S.

Extreme weather and climate events have disproportionate consequences on natural and human systems. In the Southeast U.S., extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, mesoscale-convective systems, and intense thunderstorms are prevalent. These can induce significant disturbances on terrestrial ecosystems, streamflow changes, changes in soil moisture, soil carbon, vegetation dieback or community shifts, and wildfire. With climate change, the Southeast U.S. is becoming increasingly vulnerable to these extremes, and the characteristics of these extremes are also changing. In addition to extreme events, the region is also influenced by large-scale dynamics such as the different modes of climate variability, and local climatic influences such as moisture/wind transport from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean serve as critical drivers.

Regionally distinguishing features also include topographic influences from the Appalachian Mountains, urban-rural gradients, and forested areas.

The goal of this topic is to solicit applications that focus on the use of high-resolution or regionally refined models to enhance understanding and representation of extreme events and their associated impacts in the Southeast U.S. with particular attention to the regional details that can influence the evolution, intensity, and duration of extreme events. Model development, process research, and analysis that improve representation and understanding of extreme events, their impacts and feedbacks is solicited. The increased spatial resolution in ESMs along with the prevalence of regionally refined models enables better representation of these extreme events and their consequences. For example, with higher model resolutions, atmosphere models can produce stronger vertical motions by better resolving the temperature and moisture gradients associated with fronts and tropical cyclones and representing the orographic uplift associated with mountains.

Examples of research under this topic could include:

• Enhanced understanding of the representation of the characteristics of extreme events (including cascading and compounding extremes) in the Southeast U.S. in current ESMs, their associated processes and drivers, their impacts on and interactions with the natural Earth system, and how these might change in a changing climate.

• Multiscale modeling and process level research which will help delineate the relative roles of large-scale, regional, coupled processes and/or microphysical processes that are important to the development and characteristics of extreme events in the Southeast U.S.

• Better representation of the impact of single, cascading, and/or recurring extreme events in the terrestrial system, including on vegetation and/or hydrology. Of interest are unique aspects such as scalable traits to represent vegetation dynamics and/or inundation while examining the hydrologic system. Development of metrics, benchmarks, and other relevant syntheses to evaluate extreme events, and their impacts on the terrestrial system.

All applications must have a clear relevance to the Southeast U.S. and address a research gap relevant to the Southeastern U.S. region. Comparisons to non-Southeastern U.S. sites are permitted, but the application should clearly justify the approach and ensure the primary focus of work is in the Southeast U.S.

Exclusions

Research that focuses primarily on population biology, agricultural systems, macro-organismal processes/involvement, contaminants, pollution, land or water management/engineering, wind/solar energy, ecosystem services, air quality/health impacts of aerosols, attribution/regulation, satellite validation, or applications that focus primarily on the human component alone are out of scope and will not be considered.

Applicants are encouraged to make appropriate linkages and connections between EESSD program areas within and among each of the FOA topics. The use of novel approaches and methods and the leveraging of existing infrastructure, capabilities, models, datasets, and networks is encouraged. DOE has heavily invested in the development and use of various models (e.g., E3SM, FATES, etc.), observational systems (e.g., AmeriFlux Network, ARM, etc.), and data repositories and model benchmarking products (e.g., ILAMB, ESS-DIVE, MSD-LIVE, ARM Data Center, etc.). Applications are encouraged to use E3SM and its component models to address modeling science challenges, where appropriate. The use of other multi-model frameworks, or a hierarchy of models, to complement the use of E3SM is encouraged.

Applications that develop metrics or benchmarks should include plans to add them to the appropriate DOE-supported community package. Extreme event metrics should be added to the PCMDI Metrics Package (PMP) and benchmarks related to the impacts of extremes on the terrestrial system should be added to the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) package. Applicants are strongly encouraged to leverage the DOE investments described above to reduce duplication of efforts within the community. Additionally, the leveraging of other federal investments (e.g., NEON, NASA satellite products, USGS stream gage network, etc.) is encouraged.

Collaboration with the DOE National Laboratories is allowed for this FOA, but funding to the National Laboratories is limited to 10% of the total award budget. Collaboration with the DOE National Laboratories is neither a requirement nor an expectation for this FOA.

The application of a coupled model-experiment approach (sometimes called ModEx;

https://ess.science.energy.gov/modex/) is encouraged where appropriate.

https://ess.science.energy.gov/modex/

The potential impact, probability of success, and the risk-reward balance will be considered when making funding decisions.

DOE/SC/BER anticipates holding one or more merit review panel of experts to evaluate applications obtained through this FOA.

Annual Meetings: To ensure that the program meets the broadest needs of the research community and the specific needs of the DOE EESSD, a representative (preferably the lead PI) from successful applications is required to attend at least one of the annual principal investigator/science team meetings. The Joint ARM User Facility and ASR Principal Investigators Meeting is a week-long meeting typically held in the spring. EESM holds a one-week meeting in either the summer or fall. ESS meetings are usually two days in the spring.

Travel funds should be budgeted to allow for at least one representative to attend one of these meetings in the Washington DC area for each year of the project.

Limitation on Number of Applications: An individual may be listed as the PI on no more than one pre-application or application. All senior or key personnel (identified by name in a pre-application or application) may only be named in two separate submissions. E.g., an individual could be named as a Co-Investigator on two applications but could be named PI on only one application.

Data Management and Data Sharing Policy: Research data obtained through public funding are a public trust. As such, these data must be publicly accessible. As noted in Section IV of this FOA, a Data Management Plan (DMP) is a required element for all applications. The DMP should include a clear description of the applicant’s strategy for collecting, validating, curating, preserving, quality assuring, metadata tagging, standardizing, and sharing of data acquired during the course of the funded research effort. This includes data from extensive, long-term observations and experiments and from long-term Earth system model simulations and other simulations that would be costly to duplicate.

In accordance with DOE/EESSD data management requirements (https://science.osti.gov/ber/Funding-Opportunities/Digital-Data-Management), and SC’s open-data philosophy, all data used, and all resultant products must be made accessible through or archived in the and appropriate repository. EESSD currently supports several archives, including the Environmental System Science – Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystems (ESS-DIVE;

https://ess-dive.lbl.gov/); the ARM Data Center (https://www.arm.gov/data/); the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF; https://esgf.llnl.gov/); and the MultiSector Dynamics-Living, Intuitive, Value-adding, Environment (MSD-LIVE; https://msdlive.org/). Successful applicants and collaborative teams are required to annually share their data, data products, and metadata from their funded project publicly in one of these BER supported data repositories. If successful applicants store some or all of their data in an established, public, long-term archive other than one of the above listed BER-supported archives (e.g., AmeriFlux Archive, NASA DAAC, NCBI, DOE user facilities), they are also required to, at a minimum, archive metadata describing the data with the appropriate BER supported archive, including links/DOI’s to the archived data.

Details of what has been provided to the specified data archive, including citations and URLs of https://science.osti.gov/ber/Funding-Opportunities/Digital-Data-Management https://ess-dive.lbl.gov/ https://www.arm.gov/data/ https://esgf.llnl.gov/ https://msdlive.org/ data packages, must be provided in the project’s annual progress report to DOE. Failure to provide evidence of data submission may jeopardize release of the continuation of financial support for the supported application. These archiving requirements are not intended to interfere with data management activities at the home institution(s) of the project PI(s). Applications that represent multiple PIs and/or institutions must describe the data management strategy across the entire team.

Individual PIs and teams are allowed an initial period of up to one year of exclusive use of the data from the date of acquisition to quality check the data and to publish papers based on the data, as outlined in the additional EESSD requirements regarding digital data management (https://science.osti.gov/ber/Funding-Opportunities/Digital-Data-Management). However, some data sources or facilities may have more limited exclusive use policies. The appropriate BER program manager must approve exceptions to this requirement, based upon a written request from the lead PI that fully explains the basis or extenuating circumstances for the request.

Successful applicants are strongly encouraged to engage the respective BER supported data archive team to identify appropriate standards and training for submitting the data and making the data openly available as soon as possible. Explicit data management and data sharing plans are required to be included as an appendix to the narrative (Appendix 4), and not as an attachment in Grants.gov. DMPs are limited to 3 pages in length (i.e., they are not included in the narrative page length).