Deadline for proposals is 30 April 1998

Announcement of Opportunity

Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity -- Phase II

INTRODUCTION
The NOAA Coastal Ocean Program (COP) announces an opportunity for ecosystem dynamics studies on the southeast Bering Sea shelf as part of the Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity (SEBSCC) project.  This announcement solicits two-year proposals for synthesis, monitoring and process studies to begin 1 October 1998, contingent on the availability of funds and facilities.  Further information is described below and at COP's and SEBSCC's home pages: http://hpcc.noaa.gov/cop/cop-home.html and http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/sebscc.

The Bering Sea ecosystem is influenced by climate variability.  Summer of 1997 brought +3°C temperature anomalies, unusually strong stratification, a coccolithophorid bloom, and reduced numbers of foraging sea birds and returning salmon.  On longer time scales, there is an almost exponential increase in jellyfish populations since 1989.  Such trends and one-year events may be related to prolonged weather patterns in the North Pacific and observed shifts in Arctic climate.  A key challenge for SEBSCC is to understand how such changes affect the food web and food supply to higher trophic level animals.  Thus, the focus of SEBSCC in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 is on how such physical changes affect: 1) the availability of nutrients on the Bering Sea shelf and 2) the relation of juvenile walleye pollock to top predators.

Opportunity is extended to academic, private, and federal researchers.  The deadline for proposals is 30 April 1998.  Final decisions on awards will be made by 1 August 1998.  This Phase II announcement addresses years three and four of the SEBSCC program.  Phase II will be followed by two years of synthesis.  All prospective investigators for Phase II, including those currently funded under SEBSCC who propose to continue, will compete on an equal basis for support.

BACKGROUND
The Bering Sea ecosystem is among the most productive of high-latitude seas and supports large populations of marine fish, birds and mammals.  This productivity is important to the U.S. economy in that fish and shellfish from the region constitute almost 5% of the world and 40% of the U.S. fisheries harvest.  Pollock, salmon, halibut, and crab generate over 2 billion dollars a year in fisheries revenue and provide a major source of protein. The overwhelming dominance of pollock in the Bering Sea suggests that this species currently plays a singularly important role in this ecosystem.  We do not understand the factors controlling the stability of the Bering Sea ecosystem, and there are several indications of ongoing change that cause concern.

Quantifying the relative importance of natural variations and human-induced variations in explaining upper trophic level ecosystem changes is a key management issue for the Bering Sea.  Differentiating trends in stock abundance attributable to human exploitation from trends due to natural variations is difficult because the fisheries and environmental time series are often short or incomplete.  Trends are seldom stable and can be subject to regional variation.  Important lower trophic layer changes include those natural and anthropogenic variations that cause shifts in the production of new organic matter and its vertical distribution.

SEBSCC postulates that a large fraction of the Bering Sea ecosystem energy passes through the pollock population.  Juvenile pollock respond to and potentially impact primary and secondary production through grazing, and influence the availability of food for upper trophic level species, including adult pollock, seabirds and marine mammals.  Pollock provide an important measure of the condition of the present ecosystem, and may be an indicator of changes in the Bering Sea over the last three decades and in the future.  The SEBSCC program is designed to improve our understanding of the Bering Sea ecosystem; the results of this endeavor will directly assist fishery and resource managers.

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of SEBSCC is to increase understanding of the southeastern Bering Sea pelagic ecosystem.  New information will be used to develop and test annual indices of pre-recruit (age-1) pollock abundance, which will support management of pollock stocks and help determine the food availability to other species.

The objectives for Phase II are:

  1. Determine how changes in on-shelf transport of nutrients impact pelagic food webs.  This includes determination of how timing, duration, magnitude and species composition of primary, secondary, and forage fish production affect food availability for higher trophic levels.
  2. Determine how climate variability influences the spatial overlap of pollock of different life stages, and how the availability of juvenile pollock to predators affects pollock survival rate.
STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAM
SEBSCC is a NOAA COP regional ecosystem project begun in 1996.  This continuing effort is managed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.  SEBSCC  research comprises three components:  monitoring, synthesis and process-oriented field studies.
  1. Monitoring:  Broad-scale studies include shipboard surveys, multi-disciplinary mooring observations, drifters and analysis of regional satellite data.  Shipboard studies help to determine the distribution and abundance of target organisms in relation to their physical environment.  There is a particular need for a drifter program in the outer domain of the shelf.   The aim of the broad-scale studies is to provide the basis for interannual comparison of the population processes and their coupling to the physical structure and variability of the environment.
  2. Synthesis:  Synthesis begins to pull together results generated by the program and historical data to investigate the biological, physical, and geographical structure of food webs and the influence of climatic variation.  Synthesis includes development of theoretical, statistical, and numerical models.  In addition to modeling of geographical variability, there is an ongoing need for modeling that emphasizes trophic level interaction.  Thus, proposals that develop coupled energetics, life history, and age structured models with simplified spatial dependence are strongly encouraged.  A critical element of SEBSCC is the ability to evaluate models over a comprehensive time period, e.g., the suite of years from 1970 to the present.
  3. Process Studies:  Process studies are nested within the broad-scale observations to investigate specific biological and physical processes.  Such studies provide information necessary to develop and parameterize biophysical models.  Close cooperation and interaction between process studies and the monitoring and synthesis components of the program are essential.
RESOURCES
Funding is contingent upon receipt of fiscal years 1999 and 2000 federal appropriations.  The program is to be funded at $1.0M per fiscal year for 1999 and 2000, with final synthesis at $0.7M in 2001 and $0.3M in 2002.  In 1999 and 2000, we anticipate one month of ship time in the winter/spring and one month in the summer.  We are also working on having a fall cruise in 1999.  Joint work with other research institutions on their vessels is a possibility.  We recognize that resources are limited.  We therefore encourage potential investigators to consider leveraging their proposals with support from other sources, although this is not a requirement.  Investigators interested in the Bering Sea may also consider becoming no-cost collaborators; ship time and modest travel support would be available.
PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
This opportunity is open to all interested, qualified, non-federal and federal researchers.  Foreign researchers must subcontract with U.S. proposers.  This announcement, additional background information, and further announcements are available on the SEBSCC home page on the World Wide Web.  If you are unable to access this information, either call or send an e-mail message to Allen Macklin (206-526-6798; allen.macklin@noaa.gov).  Proposals should cover fiscal years 1999 and 2000 (1 October 1998 to 30 September 2000).  Prospective investigators should provide a full scientific justification for their research and not simply reiterate justifications laid out in this Announcement or previous documents.  Proposals should be written to allow adequate review of the details of such things as goals and objectives, conceptual framework, methodological approaches, integration with other likely projects and synthesis.  In addition, it would be helpful if a statement is included as to how your proposed efforts are related to efforts of other potential investigators; interdisciplinary and multi-trophic level coordination are particularly encouraged.  Because of an eight-page limitation for the project description, individual proposals with overly complex structure and large numbers of investigators are discouraged.

Use the following instructions when preparing your proposal.  If you have questions or require further information, contact Allen Macklin or Beth Turner (NOAA COP, 301-713-3338; elizabeth.turner@noaa.gov).  Proposals must be received by 30 April 1998 and must adhere to the format stipulated below.  Submit the original and one copy of your proposal to Allen Macklin, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-0070.  Non-federal researchers should comply with their institutional requirements for proposal submission.  Non-federal researchers affiliated with NOAA-university Joint Institutes (e.g., JISAO, CIFAR) should comply with joint institutional requirements.  Proposals deemed acceptable from federal researchers will be funded through their agencies; non-federal awardees will be funded through their joint institutes, as appropriate, or through  a  NOAA grant.

PROPOSAL CONTENT
Each proposal includes six elements:
  1. Cover page -- Provide a title, a short title (¾50 characters) if needed, principal investigator(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), complete address, phone, fax  and e-mail information, and a budget summary broken out by year and institution.
  2. Half-page abstract -- State the hypothesis to be tested, the relationship of the research to the program goal, and a summary of the key approach.
  3. Project description limited to eight pages and four figures -- Supply a clear statement of the work to be undertaken.  Outline the broad design of activities, provide an adequate description of methods, and confirm adherence to the data policy that is posted on SEBSCC's home page.  Include:  i. the objective for the period of proposed work and its expected significance, ii. the relation to the present state of knowledge in the field and relation to previous work and work in progress by the proposing principal investigator(s), and iii. a discussion of how the proposed project lends value to the program goal.  Provide a full scientific justification for the research; do not simply reiterate justifications laid out in this Availability of Funds document, or other summary documents.  If you use color figures, submit additional copies of each figure as instructed in the next section.
  4. Milestone chart covering October 1998 through September 2000
  5. Budget -- Present the budget in fiscal year increments (1999, 2000).  Include the following categories:  salary and wages, fringe benefits, equipment, travel, materials and supplies (expendables), publication costs, computer services, sub-awards, total cost of this proposal, and cost sharing with other programs.
  6. Biographical sketch -- Focus on information directly relevant to undertaking the proposed research. Use no more than two pages.
PROPOSAL FORMAT AND ASSEMBLY
Staple the proposal in the upper left-hand corner, but otherwise leave it unbound.  Use 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins at the top, bottom, left and right of each page.  Use a clear and easily legible type face in standard size of 10 or 12 points.  Print on one side of the page only.  If you have color figures, submit an additional eleven copies of each with your proposal.
REVIEW AND SELECTION
The proposal review process for SEBSCC Phase II will be coordinated by the Project Management Team and the COP Office.  Proposals received after the 30 April 1998 deadline, or proposals that deviate from the prescribed format, will be returned to the sender un-reviewed.  Proposals will be subjected to initial screening for relevance to the objectives of Phase II and will be returned without review or advance notification if deficiencies are found.  Independent proposal reviews will be provided by members of SEBSCC's Technical Advisory Committee and other designated topical reviewers; these reviews will provide the basis for proposal selection.  The proposal selection criteria and weights are i. scientific rationale, quality, and approach -- 50%; ii. programmatic balance with respect to Phase II objectives -- 30%; iii. qualifications of the investigators -- 10%; and iv. reasonableness of the budget -- 10%. Successful PIs may be asked to make minor revisions in their proposals to fit into an overall program structure.  Selections will be announced by 1 August 1998.
CONDITIONS OF AWARDS
NOAA provides awards for research in the sciences.  The awardee is wholly responsible for the conduct of research and preparation of the results for publication.  NOAA, therefore, does not assume responsibility for such findings or their interpretations.  All funded participants of the SEBSCC project are required to abide by the SEBSCC data policy.
NONDISCRIMINATION
SEBSCC welcomes proposals on behalf of all qualified scientists and engineers, and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in any of the research and research-related programs described in this document.  In accordance with Federal statutes and regulations, and NOAA policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance from NOAA.