Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Plains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (WARC) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in radar ornithology. Specifically, there is a need to determine densities and traffic rates detected by mobile X-band polarimetric doppler weather radar in relation to habitat use by avifauna in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX. This opportunity will provide an avenue for 1) validating predictive weather surveillance radar (WSR) models, 2) determining how the US-Mexico border wall, and associated lighting, may be impacting avifauna, and 3) development of spatially explicit decision support tools that can address fundamental needs of USGS management partners for current and future habitat acquisition, mitigation, restoration, and conservations efforts targeted at avifauna.