Pilot Program: Bioacoustic Assay of Marine Ecosystem Health and Diversity at Channel Islands National Park. | P17AS00484

Opportunity Information: Apply for P17AS00484

The grant opportunity titled "Pilot Program: Bioacoustic Assay of Marine Ecosystem Health and Diversity at Channel Islands National Park" (Funding Opportunity Number P17AS00484) was a discretionary funding announcement from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. It supported natural resource work under CFDA 15.945 and was offered as a cooperative agreement, meaning the National Park Service expected to have substantial involvement in the planning, execution, and/or oversight of the project rather than simply issuing funds and stepping back. The opportunity was created on July 11, 2017, with an original application deadline of July 20, 2017, indicating a short turnaround typical of some targeted, project-specific federal notices.

The core purpose of the project was to expand an existing proof-of-concept effort into a more formal pilot program that connects conventional measures of marine ecosystem health and biodiversity with corresponding bioacoustic markers. In practical terms, the project aimed to test whether underwater soundscape data (for example, patterns of biological and environmental noise captured by hydrophones) can reliably reflect what traditional ecological surveys measure, such as species presence, abundance, community composition, and indicators of ecological condition. The emphasis on "linking" these approaches signals that the work was not just about collecting recordings, but about building defensible relationships between acoustic features and established ecological assessment methods so that sound could become a meaningful, interpretable indicator of ecosystem status.

The setting for the pilot was Channel Islands National Park, a marine environment where monitoring ecosystem condition and diversity is important and can be logistically challenging using only diver surveys, visual counts, or periodic sampling. Bioacoustics offers an attractive complement because sound can be collected continuously or at regular intervals, potentially capturing daily and seasonal changes, detecting vocalizing species, and providing a broader time window than many field surveys can realistically cover. A pilot project in this context generally implies developing and testing methods, confirming feasibility, and generating evidence that bioacoustic indicators can track or predict ecological conditions observed through traditional monitoring.

Eligibility was limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, meaning the program targeted universities and similar public academic entities, likely because of the technical expertise needed in marine ecology, acoustic analysis, and statistical modeling. The opportunity anticipated a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with a maximum federal funding amount (Award Ceiling) of $29,955. This relatively modest ceiling aligns with a pilot scope: refining protocols, collecting an initial dataset, performing analyses to establish acoustic-ecological linkages, and producing deliverables that could justify a larger future effort.

Overall, the opportunity focused on advancing marine resource monitoring by validating bioacoustics as a practical, science-based tool for assessing ecosystem health and biodiversity at Channel Islands National Park, while maintaining continuity with established assessment practices so that acoustic metrics could be interpreted and used alongside traditional ecological indicators.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Pilot Program: Bioacoustic Assay of Marine Ecosystem Health and Diversity at Channel Islands National Park." and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 11, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 20, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $29,955.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for P17AS00484

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