This announcement is to provide public notice of the National Park Service (NPS), intention to fund the following project with University of Alaska Fairbanks under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program. CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. The project intended award is $88,486.00. This is a continuation of an existing agreement, number P10AC90447 (P11AT90326). The project end date is December 31, 2015. STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Agreements Concerning Cooperative Research and Training on NPS Resources (16 U.S.C. § 1a-2(j)): The Secretary may enter into agreements with public or private educational institutions, States and their political subdivisions, for the purpose of developing adequate, coordinated, cooperative research and training programs concerning the resources of the National Park System, and pursuant to such agreements, to accept from and make available to the cooperator such technical and support staff, financial assistance for mutually agreed upon research projects, supplies and equipment, facilities, and administrative services relating to cooperative research units as the Secretary deems appropriate. STATEMENT OF JOINT OBJECTIVES/PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN: Technical Approach and Products - The objective of the project is to quantify the spatial and temporal variation in ocean acidification in Glacier Bay proper. Under the leadership of the Principal Investigator (with expertise in ocean acidification research and processes), we will partner with other key University of Alaska (UAF) research staff and a graduate (M.S.) student. Proposed water samples will be collected on the regularly scheduled hydrographic monitoring cruises (presently conducted by GLBA and Southeast Alaska Network (SEAN) inventory and monitoring staff under the Oceanography Vital Sign); no additional ship days will be required, and samples will be collected quickly and with little additional cost or impact to normal cruise operations. The sampling design proposes one year of sampling on all nine regularly scheduled monitoring cruises and then scales back to two monitoring cruises per year for Years 2-3. With funding for a masters-level graduate student, a published thesis will result; peer-reviewed journal articles will likely also be produced. ¿ Years 2-3- Water sampling by UAF graduate student on two cruises per year (July and December/January): ¿ 6 depths at 7 stations on two cruises per year. ¿ Graduate student stipend and tuition support for Years 2-3. ¿ Presentation of results at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium. In addition to the technical project reports and presentations, 2 key NPS-centric deliverables would be produced. The first would be a brief (~2 page) issue and project summary suitable for distribution to non-scientists and the general public. The second would be a more detailed project summary article submitted to Alaska Park Science upon project completion. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE INVOLVEMENT -Substantial Involvement : Substantial cooperation by NPS includes boat and captain support for field sampling (including fuel and NPS staff salaries); provision of sampling equipment (including a NPS owned Sea-Bird 19Plus CTD and a NPS owned SBE-55 water sampler), field crew support for sampling; formal review of each annual report and final products; and permanent archiving and web-based delivery of all data and written products on the NPS-SEAN website. SINGLE-SOURCE JUSTIFICATION: Department of the Interior Policy (505 DM 2) requires a written justification which explains why competition is not practicable for each single-source award . The National Park Service did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria: Continuation. This is the third and final year of an existing agreement that is needed for project completion. Technical contact information: Lewis Sharman,
[email protected], 907-697-2623, National Park Service, Alaska Region, End of FOA