This grant is for understanding and restoring Tuolumne Meadows, a degraded sub-alpine system in Yosemite National Park. The meadow faces threats from climate warming, low willow recruitment leading to erosion, historical overgrazing causing bare soil, and conifer encroachment. This project aims to develop restoration strategies applicable across the Sierra Nevada. Prior research highlights the critical role of soil characteristics—thickness, moisture retention, and formation—in determining vegetation vulnerability and restoration potential. Therefore, a primary focus is to establish a process-based understanding of how vegetation and soil interact. This foundational knowledge is essential before effective restoration can be implemented, allowing for the identification of processes that either hinder or promote meadow recovery.
Opportunity ID: 77815
General Information
| Document Type: | Grants Notice |
| Funding Opportunity Number: | NPS-NOI-YOSE-11-UW32 |
| Funding Opportunity Title: | Changing soil characteristics of Tuolumne Meadows: Increased vulnerability and implications for meadow restoration |
| Opportunity Category: | Discretionary |
| Opportunity Category Explanation: | – |
| Funding Instrument Type: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Category of Funding Activity: | Natural Resources |
| Category Explanation: | – |
| Expected Number of Awards: | 1 |
| Assistance Listings: | 15.944 — Natural Resource Stewardship |
| Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: | No |
| Version: | Synopsis 1 |
| Posted Date: | Mar 10, 2011 |
| Last Updated Date: | – |
| Original Closing Date for Applications: | Mar 17, 2011 |
| Current Closing Date for Applications: | Mar 17, 2011 |
| Archive Date: | Apr 16, 2011 |
| Estimated Total Program Funding: | $203,875 |
| Award Ceiling: | $203,875 |
| Award Floor: | – |
Eligibility
| Eligible Applicants: | 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. |
Additional Information
| Agency Name: | National Park Service |
| 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 vegetations vulnerability to hydrologic change and its 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 Additional Information: | – |
| Grantor Contact Information: | If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact:
Tonya Bradley
Contract Specialist Phone 402-661-1656 Email:tonya_bradley@nps.gov |
Version History
| Version | Modification Description | Updated Date |
|---|---|---|
Related Documents
There are no related documents on this grant.
Packages
| Agency Contact Information: | Tonya Bradley Contract Specialist Phone 402-661-1656 Email: tonya_bradley@nps.gov |
| Who Can Apply: | Organization Applicants |
| Assistance Listing Number | Competition ID | Competition Title | Opportunity Package ID | Opening Date | Closing Date | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.944 | PKG00039413 | Mar 10, 2011 | Mar 17, 2011 | View |
Package 1
Mandatory forms
77815 SF424-2.0.pdf
77815 GG_LobbyingForm-1.1.pdf
77815 SF424A-1.0.pdf
77815 SF424B-1.1.pdf
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