Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

The US Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC), is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU Partner for research investigating remotely-sensed changes in vegetation greenness and water use in the Colorado River Delta in Mexico as part of the Minute 323 Science Team. Minute 323 is part of the 1944 United States-Mexico Treaty; it supports the science and monitoring of the Colorado River Delta’s ecosystems, following the release of water allocated through Minute 319. Minute 319, which pre-dated the current call for research assistance began a series of long-term experiments and monitoring activities. It has now ended but is followed with Minute 323. This initial environmental flow allowed for water to be released in 2014 into the normally-dry lower Colorado River channel with the purpose of inundating the active channel and some floodplain areas of the modern delta for ecological restoration and habitat development. Several Water Treaty minutes, especially the Minute 319 agreement that allowed for an environmental pulse flow experiment for the delta, attracted scientists and media from around the world. The Department of Interior and U.S. Geological Survey invested significant resources to prepare for, monitor, and communicate the event.