Landscape Pattern – Ridge, Slough, Tree Island Mosaics | W81EWF 20 SOI 0015

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 20 SOI 0015

The Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is offering a discretionary cooperative agreement (Funding Opportunity Number W81EWF 20 SOI 0015) focused on monitoring and assessing landscape patterns in the Greater Everglades, specifically the ridge, slough, and tree island mosaic that historically defined large portions of the system. The opportunity sits under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which was authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 2000. CERP is intended to restore key ecological processes by changing how water is managed in South Florida, including redirecting freshwater that is currently discharged to the ocean and Gulf back into Everglades habitats. Because restoration at this scale is complex and outcomes can vary over time, the CERP Monitoring and Assessment Plan (MAP) established an adaptive monitoring framework to track ecosystem responses, measure progress toward restoration goals, and provide feedback that can improve project design and operational decisions.

At the core of this grant is the recognition that the Everglades pre-drainage pattern of sawgrass ridges, open-water sloughs, and elevated tree islands has been heavily altered by human-driven changes to hydrology and other ecological processes. These patterned mosaics are not just visual features; they are tied to habitat quality, water flow paths, soil formation and loss, and the resilience of plant and wildlife communities. The proposed work is meant to integrate with ongoing ridge-and-slough research and fill monitoring needs so agencies can evaluate whether restoration actions are actually rebuilding or sustaining these landscape patterns, and to support adaptive management when results diverge from expectations.

The project is expected to address two established Greater Everglades wetland performance measures: (1) Wetland Landscape Patterns - Ridge-Slough Community Sustainability and (2) Wetland Landscape Patterns - Marl Prairie Cape Sable Sparrow Habitat. To do that, the work should test and inform several linked hypotheses about wetland landscape and plant community dynamics. These include how ridge-and-slough microtopography relates to organic soil accretion and soil loss, how broader ridge-and-slough landscape patterning relates to microtopographic structure, and how plant communities shift along subtle elevation gradients as water depth and hydroperiod (the duration of inundation) change. In practical terms, the effort is aimed at connecting hydrologic conditions and management actions to measurable changes in elevation patterns, vegetation distribution, and the persistence or degradation of the ridge-slough-tree island mosaic.

The opportunity lays out four main objectives. First, it seeks to determine existing reference conditions for each performance measure, including how those measures vary across space and time; this creates a benchmark for interpreting change and setting restoration targets. Second, it calls for establishing the current status of landscape performance measures across the central Everglades, especially in areas that historically showed strong ridge-slough patterning, and for identifying spatial and temporal trends while quantifying how those trends relate to today’s hydrologic regime. Third, it emphasizes early detection of unanticipated changes in ecosystem structure and processes that might arise from hydrologic management, restoration construction and operations, or climatic variability, which is critical for adaptive management. Fourth, it aims to generate data that supports broader scientific studies on the inter-relationships among vegetation, microtopography, and hydrology, particularly to help explain unexpected ecosystem responses and to improve or validate predictive models used in planning and evaluation.

Administratively, this is a science and technology/research and development funding action (CFDA 12.630) with an award ceiling of $458,450. The original closing date listed for applications was 2020-05-13, and the opportunity was created on 2020-03-23. Eligibility is restricted: only non-federal partners of the South Florida Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) are allowed to apply. The cooperative agreement structure also implies substantial federal involvement during the project, which typically means close coordination with the Corps and other restoration partners so that monitoring outputs directly inform CERP assessment, decision-making, and long-term restoration performance tracking.

• The Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Landscape Pattern – Ridge, Slough, Tree Island Mosaics" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-03-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-05-13. (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 $458,450.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for W81EWF 20 SOI 0015

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