Assess Vulnerability of Park Ecosystems to Climate Change- APIS | NPS NOIP17AC01063

Opportunity Information: Apply for NPS NOIP17AC01063

This National Park Service (NPS) discretionary funding opportunity supports a cooperative agreement focused on assessing how climate change may affect key terrestrial ecosystems, features, and plant species at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS) in Lake Superior. APIS is a 21-island archipelago with roughly 160 miles of shoreline and an unusually high concentration of rare geologic features and plant communities tied to its sandstone foundation laid down about 600 million years ago. The park contains clay bluffs, rock ledges, coastal wetlands, and dynamic sandscape landforms such as sandspits, cuspate forelands, and tombolos. One notable example is the double tombolo on Stockton Island that supports a Great Lakes Barrens community considered globally critically imperiled. Ecologically, the islands include boreal, krummholz, and old-growth forests featuring species such as hemlock, yellow birch, northern white cedar, and Canada yew (nearly gone from the mainland), along with numerous state-listed plants (endangered, threatened, and special concern). Because these resources are considered character-defining for the park, the NPS is treating their climate vulnerability as a high-priority management issue.

The opportunity is driven by evidence that APIS is already experiencing rapid and potentially disruptive climate-related change due to its Lake Superior setting. Lake Superior has been documented as one of the fastest-warming lakes in the world, with reported warming on the order of about 2 degrees F per decade in some analyses, far exceeding the global average rate cited in the description. The lake has also warmed faster than the surrounding air in prior studies, shifting the water-air temperature gradient in ways that may be contributing to increased wind speeds since the mid-1980s. These trends matter for APIS because the islands are naturally fragmented and highly exposed, so changes in average conditions (temperature, seasonality, moisture) and disturbance regimes (storm intensity, wind, erosion, shoreline change) can cascade quickly through sensitive terrestrial communities perched along extensive shorelines. Another important concern is that Lake Superior may act as a partial barrier to the northward movement of species that would otherwise migrate in response to warming, potentially leaving island ecosystems with fewer “replacement” species as historically important species decline. While APIS and partners have already completed related work, including a 2015 scenario planning effort and broader regional vulnerability assessments, the NPS notes that these sources have not been fully synthesized into a park-scale product with the level of detail needed for day-to-day management decisions on the islands.

The core objectives of the cooperative agreement are threefold: first, to determine climate change vulnerabilities for key terrestrial plant communities, features, and species in the park; second, to translate that vulnerability information into practical, on-the-ground management through at least one adaptation demonstration project; and third, to expand education and interpretation so that park managers, staff, and visitors better understand climate impacts and adaptation options, with an explicit aim of encouraging behavior change. The work is designed as a collaborative, interagency effort that not only produces a vulnerability assessment but also strengthens the park’s capacity to plan for and implement adaptation, improves public-facing climate interpretation, and ultimately informs updates to resource management strategies and plans.

The statement of work lays out a structured process led by the recipient (identified in the description as Michigan Technological University) in close coordination with NPS. The recipient is responsible for compiling and summarizing existing baseline information about APIS ecosystems, integrating insights from the 2015 scenario planning workshop, and incorporating observed climate trends and future projections relevant to the park. A key element is convening an expert panel: the recipient helps identify and recruit subject matter experts, then organizes a pre-workshop webinar followed by a workshop where participants evaluate ecosystem and species vulnerability, assign confidence levels, consider multiple plausible climate futures, and highlight the biggest uncertainties that limit decision-making. After the workshop, the recipient conducts follow-up research and writing, circulates drafts for review with panelists and NPS, and delivers draft and final reports. The recipient also works with park staff and partners to use an Adaptation Workbook framework to select, design, and carry out at least one adaptation demonstration project intended to show how vulnerability findings can be turned into concrete management actions.

NPS responsibilities focus on enabling the work and ensuring it is directly usable for park operations. The park provides relevant reports, datasets, and GIS shapefiles; assists with identifying expert panelists and coordinating the workshop logistics; reviews draft products and provides comments; and participates in developing the adaptation demonstration project so that it aligns with park priorities and is feasible within APIS conditions. Overall, the grant is positioned less as a purely academic study and more as an applied climate adaptation effort that combines synthesis of existing science, expert judgment under scenario-based uncertainty, practical field implementation, and public interpretation.

Key administrative details in the posting include a cooperative agreement funding instrument under CFDA 15.945, categorized under environment, natural resources, science and technology, and other research and development. The opportunity number is NPS NOIP17AC01063, originally posted July 26, 2017 with an original closing date of August 14, 2017. The anticipated award is a single cooperative agreement with an award ceiling of $80,000, and eligibility is listed broadly as “Others” with clarification referenced in the full eligibility text field.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Assess Vulnerability of Park Ecosystems to Climate Change- APIS" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 26, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 14, 2017. (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 $80,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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