ERDC seeks applications to identify potential investigators capable of conducting studies and analyses to identify and evaluate impacts to wetlands in the Savannah River Estuary from the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP).
The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) prepared for the SHEP details potential environmental impacts that may occur as a result of the deepening project. One potential result identified in the FEIS is the conversion of some freshwater marsh to brackish marsh and some saltwater marsh to brackish marsh. To monitor these conversions, fieldwork will be conducted at 12 marsh sites in the Savannah River Estuary to identify environmental changes to flora within these tidal wetlands during and after SHEP construction activities. For continuity, field work must replicate the procedures used by Clemson University, Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources from 2014-2023 for the SHEP. Those procedures follow work that was conducted by the USGS Florida Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit (FL Coop Unit) during a wetlands monitoring project in 2000/2001
Submissions of Statements of Interest are due by January 2, 2024
This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Piedmont-South Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).