OpportunityTitle: Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Plains CESU
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.  CESU&#226;&#191;&#191;s are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education.  Eligible recipients must be a participating partner of the Great Plains (CESU) Program.
Description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to support investigations of the relationship between aquatic system connectivity and genetic-, species-, and ecosystem-scale biological diversity at watershed and landscape scales using the northern leopard frog (Lithobaties pipiens) as a model species. Biological connectivity is expected to be an important factor in the drought resilience of aquatic systems, as species&#226;&#191;&#191; ranges expand or contract in response to climate change. When biotic populations grow, decline, or intermix through migratory or dispersal movements across a landscape, a record of the resulting demographic dynamics can be found in the genetic materials of individuals. In general, larger-scale connectivity (and therefore interbreeding of a larger number of unrelated individuals) is reflected in greater population genetic diversity (e.g., heterozygosity). Genetic diversity is key to a species ability to adapt to change and thereby influences population persistence, especially under conditions of environmental change. Other genetic indicators also provide a record related to the strength of population mixing, which can be used as a measure of landscape level connectivity, effective population size, which is linked to extinction risk, and population genetic structure, which can be used to better understand demographic (e.g., source-sink population) dynamics. The northern leopard frog is a model species of aquatic habitat complementarity, a strategy in which a species uses multiple aquatic system types (e.g., wetlands, lakes, streams) over the course of its life cycle, and over longer-term climate cycles of habitat availability.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Contract Specialist
GrantorContactText: Faith Graves 703-648-7356&lt;br/&gt;fgraves@usgs.gov&lt;br/&gt;