Monitoring of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in support of barrier island restoration efforts | W81EWF 21 SOI 0024

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 21 SOI 0024

The grant opportunity titled "Monitoring of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in support of barrier island restoration efforts" is a Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) cooperative agreement focused on tracking how submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), especially seagrass beds, respond over time to major barrier island restoration work in coastal Mississippi. SAV is highlighted as a key coastal habitat because it stabilizes sediments, reduces erosion, dampens wave energy, and supports highly productive ecosystems that serve as nursery and foraging grounds for many fish and invertebrates. The work is framed as part of broader post-2005 hurricane recovery and resilience planning, with the Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program (MsCIP) pursuing restoration actions such as filling the "Camille Cut" at Ship Island and adding beach and dune material at Cat Island to improve protection from storm surge and coastal storm impacts. Because these construction activities can also affect water quality, sediments, and sensitive species, the monitoring is meant to help document restoration success while avoiding or identifying unintended impacts, including potential effects to threatened and endangered species and the broader Mississippi Sound environment.

At its core, the project expands and strengthens a multi-year, multi-scale SAV monitoring program around Cat Island and East and West Ship Island. The goal is to document SAV distribution, acreage, condition, and species composition across time, specifically spanning three phases: pre-construction (baseline), during construction, and post-construction. The opportunity leverages an existing baseline dataset from the National Park Service (NPS) long-term SAV monitoring program for the Gulf Islands National Seashore, then pairs it with additional survey effort and post-construction monitoring to allow direct comparisons across project phases. A notable requirement in this announcement is an added sampling push: an additional 100 SAV sampling sites distributed across Cat and Ship Islands to improve spatial coverage, ground-truthing capability, and the usefulness of the dataset for adaptive management and related analytical efforts (including alignment with ongoing lacunarity analysis referenced under the USACE Engineering With Nature (EWN) research program).

Field monitoring follows a structured, repeatable approach designed to support year-to-year comparisons. Surveys are conducted annually at permanent stations during peak biomass, using GPS navigation with approximately 4-meter accuracy. To account for navigation and boat positioning uncertainty, each station is treated as a roughly 10-meter diameter sampling area around the coordinate. SAV condition is measured using quadrat-based observations: four sub-samples are taken within a 0.25 m2 quadrat from the four cardinal directions to estimate seagrass percent cover at each site. The protocol also captures multiple water quality and environmental variables at the same time, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, light attenuation, and Secchi depth, along with SAV-specific metrics such as species composition and canopy height. Data collection is timed for shallow tides and daylight hours when possible, and the depth at which measurements occur is recorded to support interpretation of results.

On the analysis side, the work emphasizes rigorous statistical testing to detect changes in SAV condition over time and across depth zones. Permanent stations are categorized into depth strata (for example, shallow, mid-depth, deep) separately for East Ship Island and West Ship Island, and potentially combined later if the restoration reconnects them into a single island system. Key response variables include mean percent cover (either total SAV or species-specific cover), with the planned primary approach drawing from published methodologies (Neckles et al. 2012; Kopp and Neckles 2009) using repeated measures ANOVA to test whether SAV condition changes significantly over time and whether those trends differ among depth categories. The opportunity also leaves room to extend similar statistical approaches to additional indicators such as canopy height, biomass, and changes in species composition, which can provide a more complete picture of ecological response rather than relying on percent cover alone.

The cooperative agreement is structured around collaboration with the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). The recipient is expected to obtain relevant NPS monitoring data for baseline and post-construction comparisons, work jointly with ERDC to analyze and interpret SAV distribution and condition trends across project phases and zones, and deliver summarized results that ERDC can use for internal reporting and for MsCIP monitoring and adaptive management needs. The government role is described as active but supportive: providing technical guidance, helping refine experimental design, and collaborating on manuscripts. The outputs are intended for public benefit, with results to be shared through public reports and/or peer-reviewed journal articles and a public seminar describing the findings.

Applicants are expected to bring strong regional and technical expertise, specifically deep familiarity with Gulf Coast SAV communities (including marine botany skills for identification and sampling) and strong statistical competence in analyzing species distributions, vegetative condition, and acreage change. Reporting requirements include quarterly status reports and a final report due within four months after completion of the study work, and there is an explicit expectation that draft reports and draft journal article materials will be developed during the period of performance for internal peer review. The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number W81EWF 21 SOI 0024; CFDA 12.630) anticipated a single award with an award ceiling of $22,000, and it was released June 29, 2021 with an original closing date of August 16, 2021.

• The Department of Defense, 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 "Monitoring of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in support of barrier island restoration efforts" 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 Jun 29, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 16, 2021. (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 $22,000.00 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 W81EWF 21 SOI 0024

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