Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Center (NRCASC) competitive research financial assistance award to a CESU partner.Projects supported under this cooperative agreement should advance Administration priorities, including, but not limited to, American energy dominance, critical mineral development, water security, infrastructure resilience, and natural hazard preparedness. Research and activities may incorporate scientific expertise in areas such as hydrology, geology, geospatial science, biosecurity, and near-earth space science, including extreme events such as drought, flooding, wildland fire, coastal erosion, severe storms, and geologic hazards, to develop actionable science, data, and tools that support informed decision-making by resource managers and stakeholders.Prairies are vital to the Midwest's cultural heritage and rural economies. They provide habitat for diverse wildlife, including birds, pollinators, and the iconic American bison; support hunting, fishing, and birdwatching; and sustain clean water and soils that enhance the productivity of surrounding farmland. But land-use change, wildfire, drought, and invasive species have damaged prairies across the region. Invasive plants are particularly hard to manage, as they thrive after disturbances and outcompete native plants, making conventional management strategies less effective. To learn which management actions are most effective under different weather conditions, this project will leverage an unprecedented database from the Prairie Reconstruction Initiative (PRI), a multi-agency partnership managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 2012, PRI has been developing a comprehensive and ever-growing database of monitoring and management information from 160 locations across several Midwest states. The database includes planting details, dates, locations, and post-restoration monitoring inventories…