The US Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a grant to investigate marine and estuarine water entry into Selawik National Wildlife Refuge coastal freshwater ecosystems.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this agreement is to provide support and assistance to Michigan Technical University in investigating the mechanisms by which climate change may be affecting the coastal and freshwater ecosystems associated with the Selawik River drainage and acquiring baseline water quality information.

OBJECTIVES: This agreement provides support and assistance to Michigan Technical University for 2012 and 2014 fall and summer sampling on the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. Sampling will be conducted by Michigan Technical University and the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. Sampling will be conducted in within the refuge boundaries and adjacent waters, Selawik Lake, in northwest Alaska. Specific project objectives are as follows:
1. Quantify seasonal intrusion of brackish and saltwater in the lower Selawik River and model possible hydrologic linkages.
2. Investigate how changes due to melting permafrost along with water flow may be affecting primary production in this ecosystem by quantifying organic and inorganic water chemistry.
3. Provide comprehensive water quality data through investigation of primary production and phytoplankton biomass
REASON FOR SINGLE SOURCE: Unique Qualifications, The applicant is uniquely qualified to perform the activity based upon a variety of demonstrable factors such as their long term and ongoing work on an adjacent watershed in northwest Alaska. This project is an expansion of that work. The Principal Investigator, a senior USGS scientist with expertise in terrestrial ecologist, is volunteering his time and expertise at no cost to the project and is soliciting the cost-sharing ability of the University. Michigan Technical University meets other criteria which preclude competition for this cooperative agreement, including property ownership in the form of sampling equipment, technical expertise, and laboratory and field staff support capacity.