PC-24-03: Characterization of Water Column Habitats to Understand Potential Impacts from Deepwater Energy and Mineral Development | M24AS00332

Opportunity Information: Apply for M24AS00332

PC-24-03 is a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) grant opportunity focused on filling a major information gap about the mid-water (pelagic) ocean in areas where deepwater energy and mineral activities are expanding on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The central problem the program is trying to address is that while the pelagic ocean is the largest ecosystem on Earth, most routine monitoring and research tends to concentrate near the surface, where plankton and fish larvae are easiest to sample and are often most abundant. In contrast, large portions of the water column below the epipelagic zone are still poorly described, even though key processes happen throughout the full depth range, including carbon transport via the biological pump, daily vertical migrations that move animals and energy up and down the water column, broader connectivity among habitats, and complex food web dynamics. BOEM is looking to build baseline understanding of these water column habitats specifically in places that are of current or emerging commercial interest for floating offshore wind and for critical mineral resources such as abyssal manganese nodules.

Rather than funding a completely standalone expedition, this project is designed to be cost-effective by adding a complementary “mid-water” sampling component onto research cruises that are already planned for other purposes. The idea is to leverage ship time that is already funded and underway and integrate water column observations in a way that does not disrupt the primary mission of each cruise. The announcement highlights two near-term opportunities for at-sea data collection in fall 2024. One is a NOAA-led cruise (August 26 to September 16, 2024) aboard the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada, primarily aimed at surveying benthic habitats with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in offshore wind areas of interest off northern California and southern Oregon. The second is a USGS-led cruise (September 10 to October 7, 2024) aboard the R/V Kilo Moana, which will use multibeam mapping and box cores to evaluate the abundance and composition of abyssal manganese nodules south of Hawaii at the southern extreme of the OCS. The program also anticipates additional opportunities in 2025 and beyond, and BOEM plans to work with the recipient to secure appropriate future cruise integration options as they arise.

From a methods standpoint, BOEM is emphasizing practical, proven oceanographic tools enhanced with newer biological and imaging approaches. Traditional Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) rosette casts are a core element because they provide physical and chemical profiles and also allow water sampling at depth. Those water samples can then be used for environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses to characterize the biological community present across different layers of the ocean. The announcement also points to integrating cameras and optical sensors with CTD operations to help visualize deeper pelagic habitats that are rarely imaged. To keep costs and scheduling impacts low, the mid-water work could be done during periods when the main cruise operations are finished for the day, or by attaching a smaller imaging/sensor package directly to an existing CTD rosette so that imagery and environmental measurements are collected during the same deployment without requiring extra “wire time.”

The scientific and management value is tied directly to impact assessment and risk reduction as offshore industries move farther offshore and into deeper waters. Baseline water column data are intended to help distinguish normal environmental variability from project-related change, which is essential for credible environmental reviews and long-term monitoring. For floating offshore wind, baseline information can inform understanding of risks such as altered behavior, attraction/avoidance, or displacement of organisms around floating structures and associated activity. For seabed mining and critical minerals, BOEM highlights concerns that mining could generate sediment plumes with uncertain consequences for mid-water ecosystems, meaning managers need solid pre-impact characterization of what organisms and conditions exist in the water column in the first place, and how those vary by region and depth.

The project objectives are framed around building foundational knowledge and producing practical guidance for future work. First, the study aims to develop species inventories throughout the water column in areas tied to potential commercial development, with particular attention to Pacific OCS regions relevant to floating offshore wind and abyssal manganese nodules. Second, it will assess and incorporate information from other relevant scientific programs that could support these goals, with the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program given as a concrete example. Third, the work is expected to explain how organisms are distributed regionally and vertically in relation to physical and chemical drivers, linking community structure to measurable ocean conditions. Finally, a major deliverable is a set of recommendations for a relatively simple, high-value, and cost-effective “standard” mid-water sampling and sensor module that can be easily added onto future deepwater cruises, helping BOEM and partners scale up water column characterization without needing to reinvent the approach each time.

The key questions BOEM wants addressed align with those objectives: what pelagic community structure looks like in current and potential Pacific OCS regions of interest; which physical and chemical factors are shaping those communities in each region; and what standardized add-on midwater science package would provide the best return on investment for future deepwater research efforts. In practice, that means the project is not only about collecting data from a couple of cruises, but also about learning how to efficiently and consistently collect comparable mid-water observations across multiple future missions.

On the administrative side, this opportunity is not an open competition. It is a single-source cooperative agreement to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) through the Alaska Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). Because it is a cooperative agreement, BOEM scientists are expected to have substantial involvement in developing and/or conducting the study, rather than acting only as a pass-through funder. The overhead rate associated with the Alaska CESU is listed as 17.5%. The funding opportunity number is M24AS00332, the CFDA (assistance listing) number is 15.423, the activity category is Environment, and the instrument type is a cooperative agreement. The opportunity shows an award ceiling of $820,000, with an original closing date of May 29, 2024, and a creation date of April 18, 2024.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PC-24-03: Characterization of Water Column Habitats to Understand Potential Impacts from Deepwater Energy and Mineral Development" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.423.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-04-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-29. (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 $820,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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