Joint Program on Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change Notice 97- 02

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Energy Research

Joint Program on Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change Notice 97-

02

AGENCY: Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF),

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Department

of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

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SUMMARY: In concert with the U.S. Global Change Research Program

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(USGCRP) and with the intent of enhancing interagency collaboration,

the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF),

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United

States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) announce their interest in receiving

applications for support of grants that seek to augment research on

terrestrial ecology as it relates to global environmental changes. This

request for applications encourages multi-disciplinary applications

involving companion experimental/ manipulative and modeling efforts to

provide critically needed data and information for improved predictions

of global change phenomena in three equally important areas: (1) the

consequences of global-scale environmental changes on terrestrial

ecosystems, (2) the role of terrestrial ecosystems as a source or sink

of carbon dioxide and other trace gases, and (3) the interactions and

feedback between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere and between

linked ecosystems at watershed and landscape scales.

This request for applications extends the research begun as a

result of the first two Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change (TECO)

competitions in FY 1995 and FY 1996. It also extends current USGCRP

activities supported by the five participating agencies that are

relevant to this notice. These activities include the NSF Ecological

Rates of Change (EROC), Water, Energy, Atmosphere, Vegetation and Earth

(WEAVE), Land Margin Ecosystem Research (LMER), and Ecological

Diversity (ED), the DOE Program on Ecosystem Research (PER),

Terrestrial Carbon Processes (TCP), and the National Institute for

Global Environmental Change (NIGEC), the NASA programs on Terrestrial

Ecology and Land Cover and Land Use Change, the USDA programs on

Forest/Range/Crop/Aquatic Ecosystems, Soils and Soil Biology, and Plant

Responses to the Environment (PRE), and the EPA program on Regional

Ecological Vulnerabilities to Climate Change.

Applications submitted in response to this interagency announcement

are to be submitted to DOE. Each agency supporting an award, however,

will act as the sole administrative unit for that award. All successful

awards will be identified with the joint effort. The participating

agencies will jointly manage the TECO program throughout the entire

phase from the receipt and review of applications until the close-out

of awards.

It is expected that 15-18 awards up to 3 years in duration and not

exceeding $500,000 per year will be issued subject to the availability

of FY 1997 funds. Applications submitted under this notice will be

managed, prior to award selection decisions, in accordance with the DOE

Office of Energy Research's (ER's) Financial Assistance Program

Regulation 10 CFR Part 605 as published in the Federal Register

September 3, 1992, (57 FR 40582).

DATES: Submission of an original and 18 copies of each application must

be received no later than 4:30 p.m. E.S.T., February 28, 1997, in order

to be accepted under this notice and to permit timely consideration for

award by the participating agencies during FY 1997.

ADDRESSES: Formal applications referencing Program Notice 97-02 on the

cover page must be sent to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy

Research, Grants and Contracts Division, ER-64, 19901 Germantown Road,

Germantown, MD 20874-1290, Attn: Program Notice 97-02. The above

address for formal applications must also be used when submitting

formal applications by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, any commercial

mail delivery service, or when hand carried by the applicant.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Jerry Elwood, Office of Energy

Research, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Health and Environmental

Research, ER-74, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290,

telephone: (301) 903-4583, E-mail: [email protected]; Dr. Roger

Dahlman, Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental

Research, ER-74, 19901 Germantown Rd., Germantown, MD 20874-1290,

telephone: (301) 903-4951, E-mail: [email protected]; Dr. Scott

Collins, Division of Environmental Biology, Room 635 National Science

Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, telephone: (703)

306-1479, E-mail: [email protected]; Dr. Andy Phillips, Division of

Integrative Biology and Neuroscience, Room 685, National Science

Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230, telephone: (703)

306-1421, E-mail: [email protected]; Dr. Diane E. Wickland, Terrestrial

Ecology Program, Office of Mission to Planet Earth, National

Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. 20546,

telephone: (202) 358-0245, E-mail: Diame.W[email protected]; Dr.

Anthony C. Janetos, Land Cover and Land Use Change Program, Office of

Mission to Planet Earth, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,

Washington, D.C. 20546, telephone: (202) 358-0276, E-mail:

Anthony.J[email protected]; Dr. Timothy C. Strickland, National

Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Ag Box 2241, Washington, D.C. 20250-2241, telephone: (202)

401-4082, E-mail: [email protected]; Ms. Barbara M. Levinson,

Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency,

401 M Street, N.W., Mail Code 8723, Washington, D.C. 20460, telephone:

(202) 260-5983, E-mail: L[email protected]; Dr. Robert

Menzer, Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection

Agency, 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460, telephone: (202)

260-5779, E-mail: [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In concert with the U.S. Global Change

Research Program (USGCRP) and with the intent of enhancing interagency

collaboration, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of

Energy (DOE) , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seek to augment terrestrial

ecological research with this special competition. This competition

will allow more comprehensive research on the combined response of

terrestrial ecosystems to global-scale environmental changes that are

occurring or are expected to occur and the influence of terrestrial

ecosystems on environmental phenomena.

In recent decades, extensive efforts have been made to characterize

and monitor the distribution and state of terrestrial ecosystems.

Various global-scale environmental changes that are known or have the

potential to affect terrestrial ecosystems have already been documented

(e.g., increasing atmospheric CO2 and other trace gases, global

average increase in temperature, decreasing stratospheric ozone and

increases in tropospheric ozone, and land transformations, including

changes in land cover and land use). Some of these changes are expected

to continue, if not increase due to continuing human activities. Other

potential global-scale environmental changes could occur in the future

due directly or indirectly to human activities (e.g., altered

precipitation patterns, increased severity and frequency of extreme

events related to climate change). Presently, what is lacking is an

understanding of the potential

[[Page 68028]]

combined effects of global-scale environmental changes on essential

ecosystem components, functions, and processes, particularly the

effects of multiple and interacting environmental changes such as

changes in climate and atmospheric composition and land transformations

that are outside the range normally experienced by terrestrial

ecosystems. There are also significant uncertainties regarding the role

of terrestrial ecosystems in affecting global-scale changes and how

natural and human-induced changes in terrestrial ecosystems may

influence global phenomena. It is unclear from existing information how

the essential functions of species or ecosystems are being or will be

affected by global environmental changes in the future, on scales from

individual organisms to populations, communities, ecosystems,

landscapes and subcontinental regions. Without the ability to make such

projections, implications for the sustainability of ecosystems as a

support system for humans remain uncertain.

The goal for this research is to improve the scientific

understanding of how species, ecological characteristics and processes,

and ecosystems effect and are affected by global change over a range of

time scales. To enhance capabilities to assess the probable

consequences of multiple influences (e.g., concurrent changes in

climate, atmospheric composition, land transformations/land use) and

their feedback effects. The research also will increase the capability

for extending experimentally-derived information obtained at smaller

geographical scales (e.g., plot-size, stand-level, patch-size) and

shorter time frames (e.g., growing seasons) to landscape and larger

scales (e.g., regions, river basins) at longer temporal intervals

(e.g., decades, centuries).

To achieve this scientific understanding, innovative field

experiments and observational studies are needed to address

interactions of ecological processes and combinations of effects

related to global change; to relate observed effects to causative

factors; and to test predictive response models. Also, to improve

predictability, new modeling efforts will be needed for extrapolating

information to other systems and across multiple scales that will

contribute to the development of regional and subcontinental models and

ecological models that are fully interactive with other Earth system

models (e.g., Dynamic Global Vegetation Models). Agencies involved in

this interagency announcement encourage multi-disciplinary applications

involving companion experimental, manipulative and modeling efforts to

provide critically needed data and understanding for improved

predictions of global change phenomena in the following, equally

important areas:

(1) Consequences of Global Change on Ecosystems.

The goal of research in this area is to provide a stronger

scientific basis for understanding, predicting, and assessing the

effects of human-induced and natural influences on terrestrial

ecosystems, including aquatic ecosystems imbedded within terrestrial

ecosystems (e.g., streams, lakes, wetlands). It is hypothesized that

ecosystems are changing or will change in response to climate and land

use changes of the past century and predicted future changes due to the

enhanced greenhouse effect and increasing demands on land for food,

fiber, and other human uses. Understanding the consequences of these

and other global-scale changes on terrestrial ecosystems, organisms,

and resources presents unprecedented challenges because many other

types of change are occurring simultaneously. There is a need to

understand how existing terrestrial ecosystems are likely to respond to

ongoing or predicted environmental changes, and to relate observed

changes to likely causes using experimental approaches that examine

phenomena at multiple scales. There is also a need to consider the

adaptive potential of terrestrial ecosystems to environmental changes

and to incorporate the influence of ongoing adaptive changes through

time. Also, the research needs to provide the quantitative information

for models that generalize from selected study sites to broader areas

at local, regional and global levels at multiple temporal scales.

The focus of research on consequences should be on improving the

scientific understanding of how the structure and function of

terrestrial ecosystems will respond to global change, including changes

in land use and land cover, climate, and atmospheric composition. The

research should improve the scientific basis for assessing the

vulnerability of different ecosystems to global changes, including the

potential beneficial and adverse effects of such changes on ecosystem

components and processes of utilitarian and/or intrinsic value to

humans. This capability should also include projecting potential

ecological effects of future environments that many ecological

communities may not yet have experienced, and the potential role of

natural selection in driving these changes. Experimental and modeling

research is encouraged:

* To understand and predict how ecosystem processes (e.g., net

primary production, respiration, net ecosystem productivity) are

affected by combinations of altered atmospheric CO2 and other

trace gas concentrations (e.g., ozone), different climate conditions,

changing resource constraints (e.g., nutrients, water and light), and

changing land-use patterns (e.g., urban/suburban sprawl, conversion of

forest to other uses);

* To identify and quantify the mechanism(s) or process(es)

controlling observed responses to altered climatic and atmospheric

conditions and altered land cover or land use, and to understand both

the potential for these mechanisms and processes to undergo adaptation

to the changes through physiological adaptations and natural selection,

and the consequences of adaptive responses and evolutionary changes on

ecosystem function;

* To investigate trends, patterns, and relationships among

vegetation, climate, and land use to document and understand the

interaction between natural and human-dominated systems;

* To determine how biological and ecological responses to global-

scale environmental changes are manifested at higher levels of

ecosystem hierarchy (populations, communities, ecosystem, landscape) of

terrestrial environments;

* To identify changes in structural components (e.g., landscape

pattern, community structure, architectural properties of vegetation),

caused by different atmospheric, climatic, and land-use activities that

will predict the future structure and distribution of ecosystems;

* To understand and predict the effects of combinations of altered

CO2, climate conditions, changing resource constraints and land-

use change on biodiversity (e.g., genetic diversity, species diversity,

habitat diversity).

(2) Carbon, CO2 , and Other Trace Gases Related to Global

Change

The goal of research in this area is to improve the scientific

basis for understanding, predicting and assessing the quantitative role

of the terrestrial biosphere as a source or sink of radiatively active

trace gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The

combined results of process, observation, and global modeling studies

strongly suggest that terrestrial ecosystems must be taking up and

storing significant amounts of carbon each year, yet we do not know

where it is going, how long this might continue, and whether this

storage will be

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permanent or only temporary. Improved databases, experiments and

process models are needed:

* To understand complex interactions that control exchange of

CO2 and other trace gases between the biosphere and the atmosphere

for representative terrestrial ecosystems;

* To develop databases for the use, intercomparison, and testing of

process-based models of net ecosystem productivity, including data to

quantify carbon content of terrestrial ecosystems and estimate how

sources and sinks of carbon are changing;

* To measure continental atmospheric CO2, carbon isotopes, and

oxygen to better quantify processes of terrestrial carbon cycles.

(3) Ecosystem Feedbacks to Global Change

The goal of research in this area is to improve the scientific

understanding of the full range of interactions and feedbacks between

terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere (e.g., water and energy

exchange, aerosol exchange, nutrient fluxes), and between linked

ecosystems at a landscape scale by, for example, biotic propagule

dispersal, land-water interactions, biogeochemical linkages. Research

is encouraged on how species composition, ecological properties and

processes, changes in land use or land management practices influence

the ability of ecosystems, for example:

* To control or modify physical factors such as albedo, regional

precipitation, wind speed, and particulate movement in water and air;

* To control the movement of biological propagules between

ecosystems and affect the spread of indigenous and non-indigenous

species, including pest species across the landscape.

* To control biogeochemical cycling and nutrient deposition,

retention and transport that affect soil fertility, and water quality;

* To regulate the exchange of energy, water, trace gases, aerosols,

and biotic materials between the atmosphere and terrestrial environment

under variable and/or changing climatic conditions.

Research is also encouraged on the development and testing of

coupled land-atmosphere models that include interactive surface-

atmosphere processes in integrative global models.

Research proposed for this competition is encouraged to take

advantage of existing programs, research sites and facilities, or data

sets of other agencies with multi-disciplinary efforts. Examples of

such existing efforts are: NASA field campaigns (FIFE, BOREAS), DOE's

National Environmental Research Parks (NERPS), Free-Air CO2

Enrichment (FACE) field sites, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement

(ARM) Southern Great Plains site, and Program on Ecosystem Research

(PER) sites, NSF's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and Land

Margin Ecosystem Research (LMER) sites, and USDA's Management Systems

Evaluation Areas (MSEA). Applications involving the establishment of

new long-term research facilities or study sites must clearly

demonstrate the need for such facilities, including the unique research

opportunities they would provide.

In addition to interest in applications in these three areas, one-

year scoping applications will also be considered that involve

developing and demonstrating the feasibility of new experimental

approaches and/or facilities for field studies to investigate the

responses and/or feedback effects of terrestrial ecosystems to global

environmental changes. The agencies involved in the TECO program

recognize the need for new, innovative field experimental approaches

and facilities to study interactive effects of environmental changes on

terrestrial ecosystems. Accordingly, this announcement also seeks one-

year scoping applications to design and test the feasibility of new

approaches and/or field experimental systems for studying the effects

of environmental changes on ecosystems. Such scoping applications

should be clearly identified as such in the title of the application.

Administrative Information

To provide a consistent format for the submission and review of

grant applications submitted under this notice, the preparation and

submission of grant applications must follow the guidelines given in

the Application Guide for the Office of Energy Research Financial

Assistance Program 10 CFR Part 605.

Information about the development and submission of applications,

eligibility, limitations, evaluation, the selection process, and other

policies and procedures may be found in 10 CFR Part 605, and in the

Application Guide for the Office of Energy Research Financial

Assistance Program. The Application Guide is available from the U.S.

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, ER-74, 19901

Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290. Telephone requests may be

made by calling (301) 903-3338. Electronic access to ER's Financial

Assistance Application Guide and forms is possible via the World Wide

Web at: http://www.er.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.

Interested scientists at Federal agencies and Federally owned or

operated laboratories, including Federal-Funded Research and

Development Centers (FFRDC) must contact the web site http://

www.er.doe.gov/production/grants/lab97__02.html for information on this

program, or seek information from a relevant agency contact listed

above under the section entitled FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

All U.S. institutions eligible to receive grant support from DOE,

NSF, NASA, USDA, and EPA may submit applications in response to this

notice. NSF will not fund applications from FFRDCs.

Applications will be subjected to formal merit review (peer review)

and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria which

are listed in descending order of importance codified at 10 CFR

605.10(d):

1. Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project.

2. Appropriateness of the Proposed Methods or Approach.

3. Competency of Applicant's Personnel and Adequacy of Proposed

Resources.

4. Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed Budget.

As part of the evaluation, program policy factors such as the

relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement and

an agency's programmatic needs, are also criteria used in the selection

process. Note that external peer reviewers are selected with regard to

both their scientific expertise and the absence of conflicts-of-

interest. Both Federal and Non-federal reviewers may be used, and

submission of an application constitutes agreement that this is

acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution.

Applications must not exceed 15 pages for the project description

section; visual materials and tables count toward the 15 page limit. No

letters of endorsement or other appendices are allowed. Applications

may request funding for projects with a duration not to exceed three

years and a total budget not to exceed $500,000 per year. Final

selection of awards by participating agencies will be determined by the

review panel's recommendations and programmatic considerations. Each

award will be supported by a single agency. Overall the estimated

amount of funding for this program is $7M in FY 1997, depending on the

availability of funds from each agency. Principal investigators may be

requested to modify their budgets and work plans to

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comply with special requirements of the particular agency supporting

their award. The principal investigator of an award will be requested

to travel to Washington, DC for an annual meeting of all principal

investigators to discuss additional collaboration, sharing of

information and interaction of efforts among successful projects funded

through TECO and other global change programs mentioned above. Budget

requests should include travel costs to attend such a meeting.

DOE awards made as a result of this notice will be administered in

accordance with the DOE Office of Energy Research Financial Assistance

Program (10 CFR Part 605).

NSF awards made as a result of this notice will be administered in

accordance with the terms of conditions of SF GC-1, Grant General

Condition or FDP-II, Federal Demonstration Project. Copies of these

documents are available at no cost from the NSF Form and Publication

Unit, telephone: (703) 306-1130, or via E-mail: (internet:

[email protected]). More comprehensive information is contained in the NSF

grant Policy Manual (NSF 95-26, July 1995), for sale through the

Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

20402. The telephone number at GPO is (202) 783-3238 for subscription

information.

NASA grant or cooperative agreement awards made as a result of this

notice will be administered in accordance with the NASA Grant and

Cooperative Agreement Handbook (NHB 5800.1).

USDA award authority for this program is contained in section 2(b)

of the Act of August 4, 1965, as amended (7 U.S.C. 450i(b)). Under this

program, subject to the availability of funds, the Secretary may award

competitive research grants for periods not to exceed five years for

the support of research projects to further the programs of the

Department of Agriculture (USDA). Applications may be submitted by any

state agricultural experiment station, college, private organization,

corporation, or individual. Applications from scientists at non-United

States organizations will not be considered for support. Pursuant to

Section 712 of Public Law 103-330 (the Agriculture, Rural Development,

Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,

1995) funds available in fiscal year 1995 to pay indirect costs on

research grants award competitively by CSREES may not exceed 14 per

centum of the total Federal funds provided under each award. In

addition, pursuant to Section 719(b) of Public Law 103-330, in the case

of any equipment or product that may be authorized to be purchased with

the funds provided under this Program, entities are encouraged to

purchase only American-made equipment or products.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for this

program is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10

CFR Part 605.

Issued in Washington DC on December 18, 1995.

John Rodney Clark,

Associate Director for Resource Management, Office of Energy Research.

[FR Doc. 96-32758 Filed 12-24-96; 8:45 am]

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