About this archived opportunity

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to characterize tidal creek water chemistry in fresh and salt marshes in Barataria Basin, Louisiana, supporting development of a decision support tool that will assess wetland recovery in response to oil spill damage and subsequent restoration. This activity is intended to support evaluation of restoration actions within the Louisiana Restoration Area; perform data collection, aggregation and analyses; and inform critical information gaps. This work is carried out pursuant to the 33 U.S.C. 2701, 2761Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) statute and regulations. Consistent with the Consent Decree for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Trustees carry out their obligations according to Final Programmatic Damage Assessment Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PDARP/PEIS), and the Trustee Council Standard Operating Procedures for Implementation of the Natural Resource Restoration for the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill. Trustees, including Department of the Interior, have a responsibility to use allocated funds to restore natural resources and services injured or lost as a result of the DWH oil spill. The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group (LA TIG) MAM Strategy (LA TIG, 2021) has approved activities to "Contribute to maintaining and restoring ecosystem-scale condition and resilience at coastwide, basin, and subbasin scales" as a high-level objective under the Cross-Restoration Type. Under this high-level objective is the fundamental objective to "maximize the combined benefits of the various Restoration Types and approaches across the overall restoration portfolio (PDARP Section 5.5.1) (Cross-Restoration #1)". To develop a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, appropriate Timeline (SMART) objective, the LA TIG has approved U.S. Geological Survey to "Quantify wetland net ecosystem carbon balance at pre-spill/post-spill time scales and basin/sub-basin spatia