Changing soil characteristics of Tuolumne Meadows: Increased vulnerability and implications for meadow restoration

The summary for the Changing soil characteristics of Tuolumne Meadows: Increased vulnerability and implications for meadow restoration Federal Grant is detailed below. It contains information such as the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, important deadlines, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed in the Grant Announcement Contact section. If these sections are incomplete, please visit the website of the government agency that is offering this grant.


	Federal Grant Title:	Changing soil characteristics of Tuolumne Meadows: Increased vulnerability and implications for meadow restoration
	CFDA Number:	15.944
	CFDA Description:	Natural Resource Stewardship
	Federal Agency Name:	National Park Service
	Category of Funding Activity:	Natural Resources
	Category Explanation:	Information not provided
	Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
	Funding Opportunity Number:	NPS-NOI-YOSE-11-UW32
	Document Type:	Grants Notice
	Funding Instrument Type:	Cooperative Agreement
	Posted Date:	Mar 10, 2011
	Creation Date:	Mar 10, 2011
	Original Closing Date for Applications:	Mar 17, 2011
	Current Closing Date for Applications:	Mar 17, 2011
	Archive Date:	Apr 16, 2011
	Expected Number of Awards:	1
	Estimated Total Program Funding:	203,875
	Federal Grant Award Ceiling:	203,875
	Federal Grant Award Floor:	Information not provided
	Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Applicants Eligible for this Grant: Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Additional Information on Eligibility: This is "Notice of Intent" of a single source task agreement award to University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin under the Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. The justification for this single source award is based on both continuation and unique qualifications. The activity to be funded is a continuation of an activity previously funded. The PI will continue to work on questions raised from previous projects in Yosemite. The PI's previous work found that mountain meadows physically, hydrologically, chemically, and biologically link the terrestrial and aquatic environments, playing a critical role in attenuation of flood peaks (i.e. less downstream flooding), purification/filtration of water, habitat preservation and chemical/nutrient cycling. These tight couplings exist because of the exchange of water, nutrients, and energy between the streams flowing through the meadows and the interconnected meadow aquifers. For example, native wet meadow vegetation such as sedges (Carex spp.) and rushes (Juncus spp.) require significant soil moisture throughout the growing season. Because extended dry periods typically occur during the summer in California, water stored in the meadow sediments from the spring snowmelt, as well as water exchanged from the stream to the meadow sediments, is required to support the lush meadow vegetation. Therefore, The PI is uniquely qualified to do this research to answer the questions that Yosemite Resource Managers need to make appropriate decisions on how best to restore Tuolumne Meadows.
Grant Description: Tuolumne Meadows located in Yosemite National park is a degraded sub-alpine meadow and riparian system that is further threatened by a warming climate. While the causes of degradation remain unclear, ample evidence suggests that willow recruitment along riverbanks is low leading to declining willow cover and excessive bank erosion and channel widening. In addition, extremely heavy livestock grazing in the late 19th century degraded plant communities so severely that many communities lack perennial plants such as sedges and rushes that produce and maintain organic rich soils and large areas of bare soil occur. Moreover, conifer encroachment in drier areas, along headcuts, and areas of bare soil threatens to change the open meadow system into a forested landscape. In this degraded state, the meadows may be substantially more vulnerable to the effects of climate warming. This project will explore restoration different scenarios at Tuolumne Meadows that will apply to meadow systems throughout the Sierra Nevada. Research that has been underway in Tuolumne Meadows in recent years has demonstrated that soil thickness, soil moisture retention characteristics, and soil forming processes play a critical role in determining meadow vegetation's vulnerability to hydrologic change and it's amenability to restoration. However, before a restoration strategy can be implemented, a process based understanding of the interactions between vegetation condition and soil maintenance and formation must be developed and better characterized in the system so processes that inhibit and encourage meadow recovery can be identified.
Link to Full Grant Announcement: Information not provided
Grant Announcement Contact: Tonya Bradley Contract Specialist Phone 402-661-1656

Help Desk [tonya_bradley@nps.gov]
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