Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU | G20AS00033

Opportunity Information: Apply for G20AS00033

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU funding opportunity (G20AS00033) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) request for a CESU partner to carry out research that supports amphibian conservation in Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO) and the broader north-eastern Colorado region. It is structured as a discretionary cooperative agreement in the Science and Technology/Research and Development category (CFDA 15.808). USGS expected to make a single award, with a maximum funding level of $45,000. The opportunity was originally posted on January 21, 2020, with an original closing date of February 7, 2020.

The core purpose of the project is to turn decades of existing amphibian monitoring into clear, management-relevant conclusions about long-term population status, trends, and drivers of change. The work is organized around two complementary efforts. First, the project will generate a 32-year view of occupancy (presence across surveyed sites) for three amphibian species in ROMO: the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata), the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), and the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum). The design uses three points in time across that 32-year span. USGS already holds data for the first two time points, while the CESU partner would collect the third time point through new field surveys conducted over two years. With those three snapshots combined, the resulting dataset can be used to evaluate long-term change in where these species occur within the park and how those patterns relate to environmental conditions and to visitation-related factors that may influence habitat quality or disturbance.

Second, the project focuses on boreal toads (Anaxyrus boreas) and aims to estimate demographic rates and abundance, and then describe how those metrics have shifted over time for three ROMO populations. A major strength of this component is the unusually long and detailed dataset already available: USGS has continuous annual capture-mark-recapture records for these toad populations spanning the same 32-year period. The CESU partner would analyze these long-term data to estimate parameters such as survival and abundance and to test how those outcomes track key environmental covariates highlighted in prior research, including water quality factors (referencing work such as Battaglin et al. 2018). The analyses will also explicitly consider the role of amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd), a well-known driver of amphibian declines, to better understand how disease presence interacts with environmental conditions and management context to shape toad persistence.

This grant opportunity is meant to build directly on earlier park-wide amphibian occupancy surveys, including foundational work like Corn et al. (1997). By pairing new field data collection with robust reanalysis of long-running monitoring datasets, the project is designed to deliver a coherent long-term picture of amphibian presence across ROMO and, specifically for boreal toads, a detailed view of persistence and population dynamics despite ongoing disease pressure. The expected products are not just academic results, but practical insights that ROMO can use in decision-making, such as identifying habitat characteristics linked to continued occupancy and persistence, highlighting which populations or site types appear most resilient, and clarifying what variables (environmental conditions, visitor use patterns, water quality, and Bd presence) are most strongly associated with positive or negative population outcomes.

A broader goal embedded in the opportunity is transferability: the project is positioned as an example of how national parks can design, sustain, and analyze amphibian monitoring in ways that remain useful for management over decades. In that sense, the work is intended to inform both local actions in ROMO, such as strategies to bolster boreal toad persistence and preserve high-value habitat conditions, and wider best practices for long-term amphibian conservation science across the National Park system and similar protected-area settings.

• The Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU" 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 Jan 21, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 07, 2020. (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 $45,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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