Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU | G17AS00067

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00067

This grant opportunity, offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (Colorado Plateau CESU), supports a targeted research project on how climate change is shaping evolutionary outcomes in northern mesocarnivores, with a specific emphasis on hybridization and introgression. The core idea is to use modern genomic tools to understand when and why closely related carnivore lineages in Alaska and neighboring Canada have mixed in the past, are mixing now, and may mix more as warming alters habitats and species ranges. The work is framed as directly management-relevant because hybridization can change biodiversity trajectories in ways that affect conservation status, ecosystem function, and future wildlife management decisions in high-latitude regions experiencing rapid climate shifts.

Scientifically, the opportunity centers on the “co-evolutionary dynamics” driven by climate and landscape change across three major biomes: the Arctic, the boreal forest, and the North Pacific temperate rainforest. The solicitation highlights that there is already substantial preliminary evidence from earlier projects showing hybridization among ermine (Mustela erminea) lineages, including contemporary mixing between boreal and Arctic lineages in western Alaska and eastern Canada, plus older, deeper-time hybridization patterns tied to Beringian and North Pacific lineages. It also points to classic genetic studies that have detected both historical and more recent hybridization between the two North American marten species (Martes americana and Martes caurina), particularly on islands in the Alexander Archipelago of southeast Alaska and in other areas along the North Pacific Coast. In other words, the project is not starting from scratch; it is meant to build on known hybrid zones and previously detected genetic signatures to produce a finer-scale, more time-resolved explanation of how these patterns emerged.

A major theme in the description is biogeographic history: these species diversified under repeated cycles of isolation and reconnection, influenced by sea-level changes, glaciation, and the unique history of Beringia as a corridor and refugium. The grant calls attention to the ecological differences among lineages and species (habitat affinities) and to post-isolation secondary contact, including contact that may have been intensified or altered by human actions such as translocations. The proposed research is expected to clarify the timing and ecological correlates of these contact events, and to interpret their consequences. Those consequences can include gene flow that either increases adaptive potential (for example, by moving beneficial alleles across populations) or undermines locally adapted lineages (for example, through genetic swamping), depending on the context.

Methodologically, the opportunity explicitly encourages the use of genomic approaches rather than relying only on earlier “classical” genetic markers. It references next-generation sequencing and parallel tagged amplicon sequencing, signaling an expectation for higher-resolution genomic datasets capable of detecting fine-scale introgression, distinguishing ancient from recent gene flow, and linking genetic patterns to geography and ecology. In practical terms, that implies the work may involve designing and applying targeted sequencing panels and/or genome-wide marker sets, then analyzing those data to infer admixture, demographic history, and the spatial structure of hybridization across landscapes that are changing under warming conditions.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, with funding provided through a cooperative agreement. The opportunity number is G17AS00067, tied to CFDA 15.808, and it was originally posted on May 30, 2017 with a closing date of June 16, 2017. The expected number of awards is one, with an award ceiling of $55,000, indicating a relatively focused, single-project effort rather than a broad multi-award program. Eligibility is listed as “Others,” with additional eligibility details referenced in the full posting, consistent with CESU opportunities that often route funding through eligible CESU network partners and their collaborating institutions.

Overall, the grant is aimed at producing an integrated evolutionary and ecological narrative of hybridization in key Alaskan and northwestern Canadian mesocarnivores, using contemporary genomics to explain how past sea-level and glacial dynamics, present-day habitat structure, and accelerating climate change interact to shape gene flow. The expected payoff is actionable insight for agencies trying to anticipate how warming-driven range shifts and renewed contact among lineages or species could reorganize northern biodiversity in the coming decades.

• The Department of the Interior, 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 May 30, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 16, 2017. (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 $55,000.00 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).

Apply for G17AS00067

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