Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) | G22AS00194

Opportunity Information: Apply for G22AS00194

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through its John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, offered a discretionary cooperative agreement funding opportunity focused on improving understanding and projection of wildfire risk across North America under climate change. The core project theme is "Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire." In practical terms, the work is meant to pull together a large, continent-wide tree-ring fire-scar dataset and integrate it with modern fire records to build a multi-century perspective on where, when, and under what climate conditions fires have occurred. By linking the deep historical record to present-day observations, the project aims to clarify how climate variability and long-term warming influence fire potential, and to use those insights to improve projections of future wildfire at regional to continental scales.

A central expectation is that the research team will synthesize the North American fire-scar network and merge it with contemporary wildfire datasets to produce an integrated fire history spanning multiple centuries. Tree-ring fire scars provide annually resolved evidence of past fire occurrence in many forest types, and when assembled across broad geographies they can reveal patterns in fire frequency, extent, and synchrony that are not visible in the relatively short modern fire record. The opportunity also emphasizes leveraging recent advances in paleoclimate reconstruction methods and the extensive network of tree-ring chronologies to reconstruct seasonal climate variables. The intent is not just to relate fire to generic climate averages, but to tailor reconstructions toward climate factors most relevant to fire behavior and fire occurrence (for example, seasonal moisture balance, drought indices, temperature patterns, and other climate metrics that better capture fire-season conditions and fuel aridity).

The solicitation outlines several specific scientific approaches and deliverables the project should address. First, it calls for analysis of multi-century spatio-temporal dynamics in fire-climate relationships across North America, meaning the project should examine how the fire-climate link varies through time and from one region to another, and whether those links strengthen, weaken, or shift under different climate regimes. Second, it seeks work on the climate drivers behind changing synchrony of wildfire, including widespread fire years when many locations burn in the same year or in closely clustered periods. This component is aimed at understanding the climate patterns that align fuels and weather across large areas to produce continent-scale or multi-region fire years. Third, the opportunity highlights cyclical properties of fire occurrence that might provide predictive capacity, particularly relationships between fire patterns and major ocean-atmosphere oscillations such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Arctic Oscillation. This reflects an interest in whether recurring climate modes help explain periodicity in fire activity and whether those cycles can be used to anticipate elevated fire potential. Fourth, the project is expected to combine historical (tree-ring derived) and modern fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire potential, explicitly tying the long-term perspective to forward-looking assessment under continued climate change.

Administratively, this opportunity was issued under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, using a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument. CESUs are partnership networks designed to support research, technical assistance, and education, with an emphasis on collaboration between federal agencies and affiliated partners. Eligibility is limited to organizations that are participating partners of the Rocky Mountain CESU, which places this competition in a defined partner community rather than open to all applicant types. The listing identifies the agency as the Geological Survey (USGS) and classifies the activity under Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Key funding details provided include the opportunity number G22AS00194, CFDA number 15.808, and an award ceiling of $100,000. The original closing date was March 2, 2022, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of February 2, 2022. The announcement indicates an expectation of awards but does not clearly specify a numeric count in the provided text. Overall, the grant is structured to support a synthesis-oriented, continent-scale fire-climate research effort that connects paleofire evidence from tree rings with modern datasets and climate reconstructions to strengthen understanding of wildfire variability and improve future wildfire projections.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-02-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-03-02. (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 $100,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G22AS00194

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