OpportunityTitle: Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.  CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education.  The eligible recipient must be a participating partner of the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.
Description: The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in evaluating whether environmental DNA (eDNA) for benthic invertebrates can improve detection of the ecological effects of environmental contamination in streams and rivers. The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project has conducted several regional stream-quality assessments across the Nation, where a large number of environmental stressors are monitored concurrently with ecological assessments at approximately 100 streams throughout each region. In the California Regional Assessment (CSQA), NAWQA collected eDNA samples at 84 stream sites in addition to conducting traditional macroinvertebrate samples. Recent advancements in molecular analysis techniques provide a potential solution to long-standing limitations of traditional biological assessment approaches. The CSQA dataset provides an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate whether modern DNA approaches provide an improvement over traditional approaches at detecting the ecological effects of pollutants.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Contract Specialist
GrantorContactText: Faith Graves 703-648-7356&lt;br/&gt;fgraves@usgs.gov&lt;br/&gt;