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The Plant-Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF-NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. The program's scope extends from fundamental mechanisms to translational efforts, with the latter seeking to put into agricultural practice insights gained from basic research on the mechanisms that govern plant-biotic interactions. Projects must be strongly justified in terms of fundamental biological processes and/or relevance to agriculture and may be purely fundamental or applied, or include aspects of both perspectives. All types of symbiosis are appropriate, including commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. Research may focus on the biology of the plant host, its pathogens, pests or symbionts, interactions among these, or on the function of plant-associated microbiomes.

The Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF-NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. The program's scope extends from fundamental mechanisms to translational efforts, with the latter seeking to put into agricultural practice insights gained from basic research on the mechanisms that govern plant biotic interactions. Projects must be strongly justified in terms of fundamental biological processes and/or relevance to agriculture and may be purely fundamental or applied, or include aspects of both perspectives. All types of symbiosis are appropriate, including commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. Research may focus on the biology of the plant host, its pathogens, pests or symbionts, interactions among these, or on the function of plant-associated microbiomes. The program welcomes proposals on the dynamics of initiation, transmission, maintenance and outcome of these complex associations, including studies of metabolic interactions, immune recognition and signaling, host-symbiont regulation, reciprocal responses among interacting species and mechanisms associated with self/non-self recognition such as those in pollen-pistil interactions.

.S. Geological Surveyâ¿¿s (USGS) Great Lakes Science Center is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to explore the plant-microbe interactions in Phragmites australis, with a primary focus in the Great Lakes basin. In order to develop a microbe-based management approach for invasive plants, this research will study samples of Phragmites plants (or related species) grown or collected in collaboration with ongoing USGS studies to isolate, identify, and experiment with microbes (e.g., fungi, bacteria). The goals of this research are to improve our understanding of ways that fungal and bacterial endophytes affect Phragmites invisibility and provide targets for microbial control or enhancement. To better understand the underlying mechanisms of invasiveness in Phragmites and to identify potential control mechanisms, research in three general areas that build upon past and ongoing research: 1) comparing key characteristics of native vs. invasive Phragmites genotypes, 2) developing in vitro approaches for exploring Phragmites-microbial interactions, and 3) exploring the role of Phragmites litter as an endophyte inoculum source and contributor to soil microbial community structure and dynamics.

One of the BLM's highest priorities is to promote ecosystem health and one of the greatest obstacles to achieving this goal is the rapid expansion of weeds across public lands. These invasive plants can dominate and often cause permanent damage to natural plant communities. If not eradicated or controlled, noxious weeds will continue to jeopardize the health of the public lands and to constrain the myriad activities that occur on public lands. BLM NM has opportunities to work with partner organizations to collaboratively manage and coordinate treatments, inventories, monitoring, education and outreach, and prevention activities to control new infestations and treatment to remove existing infestations of noxious weeds and invasive species in order to gain efficiencies across multiple jurisdictions.

The U.S. Forest Service will support projects in the Great Lakes basin that implement the following strategic, priority actions: * restore tree canopy lost to infestation by emerald ash borer * create or improve green infrastructure through the planting of trees and other vegetation as part of a local management strategy to maintain and enhance urban watersheds. * restore the structure and function of coastal wetlands and lake-affected riparian areas through planting of native trees and diverse vegetation.

The multi-agency Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and social drivers that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be the quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; the feedback between ecological transmission and evolutionary dynamics; and the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of pathogen transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric pathogens of either terrestrial or aquatic systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems.

The goal of this program is to detect, prevent, eradicate, and/or control invasive plant species to promote resiliency, watershed stability, and biological diversity on federal, state, or private land.

The consequences of climate variability and change are becoming more immediate and profound than previously anticipated. Over recent decades, the world has witnessed the onset of prolonged droughts on several continents, increased frequency of floods, loss of agricultural and forest productivity, degraded ocean and permafrost ecosystems, global sea level rise and the rapid retreat of ice sheets and glaciers, loss of arctic sea ice, and changes in ocean currents. These important impacts highlight that climate variability and change can have significant effects on decadal and shorter time scales, with significant consequences for plant, animal, human, and physical systems. The EaSM funding opportunity enables interagency cooperation on one of the most pressing problems of the millennium: climate change and??how it is likely to affect our world. It allows the partner agencies -- National Science Foundation (NSF) and??U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- to combine resources to identify and fund the most meritorious and highest-impact projects that support their respective missions, while??avoiding duplication of effort and fostering collaboration between agencies and the investigators they support.This interdisciplinary scientific challenge calls for the development and application of next-generation Earth System Models that include coupled and interactive representations of such??components as ocean and atmospheric currents, agricultural working lands and forests,?? biogeochemistry, atmospheric chemistry,?? the water cycle and land ice.?? This solicitation seeks to attract scientists from the disciplines of geosciences, agricultural sciences, mathematics and statistics. Successful proposals will develop intellectual excitement in the participating disciplinary communities and engage diverse interdisciplinary teams with sufficient breadth to achieve the scientific objectives. 

Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology supports studies of: (1) the changing aspects of life, ecology, environments, and biogeography in geologic time based on fossil plants, animals, and microbes; (2) all aspects of the Earth's sedimentary lithosphere - its insights into the geological processes and rich organic and inorganic resources locked in rock sequences; (3) the science of dating and measuring the sequence of events and rates of geological processes as manifested in Earth's past sedimentary and biological (fossil) record; (4) the geologic record of the production, transportation, and deposition of modern and ancient physical and chemical sediments; and (5) understanding Earth's deep-time (pre-Holocene) climate systems.

US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU parnter to develop a synthesis of knowledge that clearly identifies what is known and not known about the response of Northwest forest communities to changing fires regimes. This synthesis will provide an important resource for regional managers and help identify future science opportunities for the NW CSC to pursue. In particular, managers need information about how climate change will affect fire regimes and what plant communities will return after stand-replacing fires. This information is critical for development of post-fire restoration projects and forest management plans.

UA anthropologists will invite FLAGâ¿¿s thirteen traditionally associated tribes to SUCR, WACA, and WUPA, and interview tribal members about their traditional associations with FLAG landscapes, places and resources, including plants necessary for the continuation of traditional ceremonies. UA will employ a Graduate Research Assistant (.50 FTE ) for two academic years to work with Dr. Ferguson and Dr. Austin on the project. Research with participating tribes is targeted for spring break and summer so that the Graduate Research Assistant can help conduct the field work. It is anticipated that members of the Paiute Consortium and the Western Apache Working Group will conduct joint field work, so eight sessions of field work are budgeted. Each session will entail three days of work with tribal research participants, including travel to and from reservations.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for various research and development topic areas. The ERDC consists of the Coastal and Hydraulics Lab (CHL), the Geotechnical and Structures Lab (GSL), the Reachback Operations Center (UROC), the Environmental Lab (EL) and the Information Technology Lab (ITL) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Construction Engineering Research Lab (CERL) in Champaign, Illinois, and the Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) in Alexandria, Virginia. The ERDC is responsible for conducting research in the broad fields of hydraulics, dredging, coastal engineering, instrumentation, oceanography, remote sensing, geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, soil effects, vehicle mobility, self-contained munitions, military engineering, geophysics, pavements, protective structures, aquatic plants, water quality, dredged material, treatment of hazardous waste, wetlands, physical/mechanical/ chemical properties of snow and other frozen precipitation, infrastructure and environmental issues for installations, computer science, telecommunications management, energy, facilities maintenance, materials and structures, engineering processes, environmental processes, land and heritage conservation, and ecological processes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Geosciences (GEO), the Divisions of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) and Environmental Biology (DEB), in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the Directorate Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE/CNS), and the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) encourage convergent research that transforms existing capabilities in understanding dynamic soil processes, including soil formation, through advances in sensor systems and modeling. The Signals in the Soil (SitS) program fosters collaboration among the two partner agencies and the researchers they support by combining resources and funding for the most innovative and high-impact projects that address their respective missions. To make transformative advances in our understanding of soils, multiple disciplines must converge to produce environmentally-benign novel sensing systems with multiple modalities that can adapt to different environments and collect and transmit data for a wide range of biological, chemical, and physical parameters. Effective integration of sensor data will be key for achieving a better understanding of signaling interactions among plants, animals, microbes, the soil matrix, and aqueous and gaseous components. New sensor networks have the potential to inform models in novel ways, to radically change how data is obtained from various natural and managed (both urban and rural) ecosystems, and to better inform the communities that directly rely on soils for sustenance and livelihood.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Geosciences (GEO), the Divisions of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) and Environmental Biology (DEB), in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the Directorate Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE/CNS), and the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) encourage convergent research that transforms existing capabilities in understanding dynamic soil processes, including soil formation, through advances in sensor systems and modeling. The Signals in the Soil (SitS) program fosters collaboration among the two partner agencies and the researchers they support by combining resources and funding for the most innovative and high-impact projects that address their respective missions. To make transformative advances in our understanding of soils, multiple disciplines must converge to produce environmentally-benign novel sensing systems with multiple modalities that can adapt to different environments and collect and transmit data for a wide range of biological, chemical, and physical parameters. Effective integration of sensor data will be key for achieving a better understanding of signaling interactions among plants, animals, microbes, the soil matrix, and aqueous and gaseous components. New sensor networks have the potential to inform models in novel ways, to radically change how data is obtained from various natural and managed (both urban and rural) ecosystems, and to better inform the communities that directly rely on soils for sustenance and livelihood.

The U.S. Department of Energy Fossil Energy Crosscutting Research Program serves as a bridge between basic and applied research by targeting concepts that offer the potential for transformational breakthroughs and step-change benefits in the way energy systems are designed, constructed, and operated. DOE is seeking financial assistance applications that propose concepts and technologies that will make significant and cost-effective progress toward achieving these step-change benefits for electric generating units and industrial plants that use fossil fuel.

Duties are mainly assisting with field data collection and related data management for the Networksâ¿¿ vegetation and water quality monitoring programs. Other duties may include assisting with early detection of invasive plants, and with monitoring air quality, freshwater mussels and cave resources.

NOIs Due: December 4, 2017; Proposals Due: February 2, 2018. Research Opportunities in Space Biology (ROSBio) - 2016 "Appendix G: Solicitation of Proposals for Flight and Ground Space Biology Research" NNH16ZTT001N-FGThis Appendix to the Research Opportunities in Space Biology (ROSBio) - 2016 NASA Omnibus Research Announcement (hereafter referred to as ROSBio-2016 Omnibus NRA) solicits proposals that will increase NASA's understanding of how living systems acclimate to spaceflight to support human space exploration.The solicited research will fall into into the following four research emphases:1. Microbiomes of the Built Environment (MoBE) of Spacecraft; 2. Plant Biology to support Human Space Exploration; 3. Animal Biology in support of Human Space Exploration; 4. Molecular and Cellular Biology.