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Funding Announcement
To Study Hypoxia in Coastal Regions

released June 30, 2004

Coastal Hypoxia Research Program - On June 30, 2004, a funding announcement was published for the Coastal Hypoxia Research Program (CHRP) to be supported by the NCCOS Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research/Coastal Ocean Program (CSCOR/COP). The overall goal of the CHRP is to develop modeling tools and information which will be used by resource managers to assess alternative management strategies and make informed decisions regarding hypoxia in U.S. coastal waters.

Over half of the U.S. estuaries experience natural or human-induced hypoxic conditions at some time each year and evidence suggests that the frequency and duration of hypoxic events have increased over the last few decades. These hypoxic events can have large impacts on the affected ecosystems and have associated economic impacts. Determining the causes of hypoxia, developing the capability to predict its occurrence in response to varying levels of anthropogenic stress, and evaluating the subsequent ecological and economic impacts are necessary to assess potential management alternatives.

Proposals for funding under this announcement will be accepted for hypoxia research in U.S. Great Lakes, estuaries and coastal ocean regions, exclusive of the “dead zone” over the Louisiana continental shelf. Potential topics to be addressed by the proposals include: the development of a predictive capability for the spatial and temporal extent of hypoxia given current and potential anthropogenic and natural forcing scenarios and potential management alternatives; the determination of the current ecological and economic impacts of hypoxia in a region and the development of ecological forecasts and economic valuations of the impacts of changes in a hypoxic region’s extent; and the development of models that predict the susceptibility of coastal systems to the formation of hypoxic waters.

The full text of the announcement is available at the following websites:

CSCOR website also Grants.gov