Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
Closed Posted
- Opportunity number
- G26AS00116
- Agency
-
US Geological Survey
Department of the Interior
- Applications due
- Award size
- Up to $499,550
Opportunity facts
- Assistance listings
- Funding instrument
- Cooperative Agreement
- Category
-
- Science and Technology and other Research and Development
- Eligible applicants
-
- Other
- Points of contact
-
- Rachel Miller rachelmiller@usgs.gov (703) 571-1819
Opportunity details come from Grants.gov. Updated .
About this opportunity
The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center seeks research projects to develop and apply remote sensing platforms, artificial intelligence, and machine learning tools to improve understanding of southwestern U.S. dryland ecosystems, with particular emphasis on biological soil crusts, rangeland productivity, and exotic grass invasion. This cooperative agreement opportunity is designed to integrate emerging remote sensing technology from drones and satellites with ground-based ecology and novel dryland experiments to provide resource managers with enhanced decision-support capabilities for ecosystem management. Applicants must demonstrate scientific excellence and relevance to USGS mission objectives, with evaluation criteria emphasizing the utility of remote sensing innovations for assessing and managing the nearly 40% of U.S. land comprised of arid and semiarid ecosystems. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov using Standard Form 424, with a deadline of June 14, 2026, and applicants should expect notification of award decisions within three to six months of submission.
Awards under this program typically range from $40,000 to $500,000, with performance periods of one to five years administered as cooperative agreements through the Department of the Interior. The research will focus on landscape-scale assessments and mapping solutions applicable across southwestern dryland regions, with deliverables including remote sensing tools, artificial intelligence applications, and scientific products intended to inform land managers, ranchers, and other resource decision-makers. Recipients are subject to audit requirements under 2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F, must maintain all records for three years following submission of the final financial report, and must ensure all geospatial data produced complies with Federal Geospatial Data Committee standards and is submitted in open format with complete metadata.
Synopsis
The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) seeks to provide financial assistance for a research project to help build a program to use new remote sensing platforms to improve understanding of how southwestern U.S. ecosystems work and for management options that can best provide ecosystem services in these challenging ecosystems. This program will focus on remote sensing tools that are best for dryland ecosystems, on biological soil crust communities, and on using remote sensing to inform land management options. The work will also focus on using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and other cutting edge data analysis tools to analyze a range and scale of data that was previously not possible.Nearly 40% of the United States are arid and semiarid ecosystems, thus these drylands are both vast and important. At the same time, remote sensing challenges unique to drylands have made landscape-scale assessments of drylands challenging and thus the power of remote sensing tools has lagged behind their use in more mesic ecosystems. Nevertheless, the utility of improving our ability to use remote sensing for assessing and understanding drylands has myriad uses, including those that directly inform resource managers and decision makers. This would include the creation of innovative remote sensing options for mapping, assessing, and managing for biological soil crusts. Biocrusts are a soil surface community that represent the dominant cover type in many U.S. drylands. It has been proposed to blend emerging remote sensing technology from drones, satellites, and on-the-ground with ground-based ecology and novel dryland experiments to improve the tools and options dryland land managers have to manage for essential ecosystem services. New remote sensing technologies could vastly improve ability to predict biocrust abundance, rangeland productivity, and exotic grass invasion, which would be of significant use for resource managers, ranchers, hunters and anyone needing to consider forage quality for livestock and wildlife, fire regimes for the upcoming year, dust production, and restoration prioritization options.
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