Grants / Department of Defense / Engineer Research and Development Center

W81EWF-23-SOI-0002: Lake Huron Phosphorous Efflux

Closed Closed May 9, 2023 Opportunity W81EWF-23-SOI-0002 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Engineer Research and Development Center notices from 2023.

• Award ceiling$170,000
• Total funding$170,000
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $170,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

ERDC seeks applications for: Sampling phosphorous efflux from Lake Huron to learn how concentrations change in the downstream direction and ultimately impact Lake Erie Recent analyses (Burniston et al. 2018, Scavia in review, Scavia et al. 2019, 2020, 2022) have shown that the phosphorus (P) load from Lake Huron to the St. Clair River has been underestimated by at least a factor of three. Earlier underestimates were based on assuming the load is determined by offshore concentrations, dismissing river measurements because they were presumed to be biased by sediment-bound P that is not available to algae (IJC 1977). However, Scavia et al. (2020) showed that P to be biologically available. The newer load estimates are based on relatively frequent direct measurements in Canadian waters (e.g., Burniston et al. 2018) and estimates based on daily turbidity measurements in US and Canadian waters, and turbidity-P regressions (Scavia et al. 2022). Scavia et al. (2019, 2020) suggested the higher loads are driven by episodic fluxes of wind-driven resuspended sediment from Lake Huron’s nearshore. Burniston et al. (2018) also reported that P concentrations at the bottom of the river near Port Lambton were substantially higher that those measured at the top near Point Edward. Based on Port Huron/ Point Edward and Port Lambton/Algonac average loads, Scavia et al. (2019, 2020, 2022) suggest these higher loads at the bottom could reflect the episodic events that were missed in samples at the top of the river were mixed during transport and captured at the bottom (Figure 1). Additional sampling targeting more resuspension events are needed to confirm this. Initial efforts also revealed that loads calculated with P concentrations at Port Lambton were higher than those based on concentrations measured across the river at Algonac (Figure 2) even though they are roughly 0.5 km across the river from each other. An important difference between sampling at Algonac and Port Lambton is sampling depth. Algonac samples are taken from 0.5 – 1.0 m below the surface (J. Varricchione, Michigan EGLE, personal communication), whereas Port Lambton samples are from roughly 1 m off the bottom (Burniston et al. 2018). It is possible that the Port Lambton samples encounter resuspended river sediment or bed load. Dissolved substances (e.g., Chloride) move conservatively from Point Edward to Port Lambton, but the fraction of P in particulate form does not (Figure 3).

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.