Habitat for Humanity of Iowa AmeriCorps Program

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to develop an integrated population model (IPM) and conduct a Bayesian Population Viability Analysis (BPVA) for the Atlantic Coast population of Piping Plovers. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1986, the Atlantic Coast population comprises four recovery units (Atlantic Canada, New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern states). Although intensive management has contributed to population growth, recovery has been uneven among units, and some have not grown despite years of targeted management and monitoring. Ongoing threats include habitat loss and degradation, predation, and human disturbance. Emerging challenges include habitat alteration driven by environmental change, including sea level rise and increased storm frequency. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires reliable quantitative tools to assess the effects of these threats on the resilience, redundancy, and adaptive capacity of the Atlantic Coast population. Funding Opportunity Number: G27AS00066. Assistance Listing: 15.808. Funding Instrument: CA. Category: ST. Award Amount: $1 – $234K per award.

Understanding the nature and the extent of the effects of PFAS on biodiversity and ecosystem services is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes: the mechanistic understanding of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) effects on biodiversity, on ecosystems and on ecosystem services is improved and evaluations of their extent are available; research needs to close knowledge gaps and to address issues on biodiversity and ecosystem services are better identified; the new knowledge can be integrated by policymakers in their decisions related to biodiversity protection and restoration, environmental protection and protection of human health as well as in socio-economic cost-benefit analysis for policy measures on PFAS. Scope: PFAS pollution significantly impacts human health and the environment. Addressing PFAS is notably a flagship action under the Water Resilience Strategy [1] . There is growing evidence on impacts on biodiversity above and below ground and water, but more evidence is needed to substantiate the effects on different species, populations and entire ecosystems, and their extent. A European Commission study published on 29 January 2026 [2] revealed significant knowledge gaps on the effects of PFAS on biodiversity. In particular, the study underlined the difficulties to estimate and monetise ecosystem services loss because of PFAS, due to a lack of data on ecosystem-level effects. Proposals should: conduct field-based studies, possibly in combination with controlled studies, to better understand the effects of PFAS and their breakdown products on species, populations and on ecosystems and their long-term ecological effects; evaluate the nature and the temporal and spatial scale of the effects, including multi-generational effects both on key species and on entire ecosystems; explore and apply robust and, where possible, comparable methods to assess the impacts of PFAS on ecosystem services including practical approaches for biophysical and, where relevant, economic valuation that can support policy and decision-making; prioritise and justify the PFAS substances or groups of substances (e.g. short versus long chain ones; fluoropolymers ; F-gases; ultrashort chain PFAS such as trifluoroacetic acids, etc.) to be addressed, taking into account their occurrence in European ecosystems, relevance for biodiversity impacts and policy relevance, as well as the environmental media through which the pollution takes place (soil, waterbodies, rain, seafoam, polar areas, ocean, air, e.g.); take into account bioaccumulation and biomagnification including across the trophic chain, co-exposure of multiple PFAS substances as part of the combination of other toxic substances found in-situ, long term and chronic exposure over prolonged periods of time and uncontrolled environmental variables which may either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of PFAS; focus on tissue-specific accumulation and distribution patterns of PFAS when assessing their bioaccumulation and toxicological effects; consider organisms that have received less attention until now [3] , for instance apex predators, wild plants including aquatic plants, soil organisms, plankton or low trophic species, and habitats that are fragile and/or endangered but also key cornerstones in functional ecology. Also for plant species that can take up very high amounts of PFAS, such as those used for phytoremediation (for example reed and hemp), it should be investigated whether they are experiencing significantly more negative effects due to these higher PFAS concentrations in their tissue. It is up to the applicant to justify the chosen biodiversity aspect and its PFAS-related relevance. Emphasis on regional focus areas could be considered since high PFAS contamination is often highly localised; estimate costs resulting from the loss of ecosystem services due to PFAS pollution; explore approaches such as ecosurveillance to monitor ecosystem health, building on effective approaches already in place where available and considering diff Programme areas: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, Biodiversity and Natural Resources, Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, Biodiversity monitoring, Biodiversity status and trends, Conservation biology, ecology, genetics, Ecology (theoretical and experimental; population, species and community level), Environment, Environment, resources and sustainability, Environmental protection, Environmental risk measurement, Environmental stressors, Environmental toxicology at the population and ecosystems level, Microbiology, Natural resources and environmental economics, Nature conservation, Plant biology, Plant toxicology, Protection of environment (before, during and after), Soil biodiversity, Soil pollution (FN/I3), Soil protection, Surveillance of environment in order to alert, PFAS, air pollution, aquatic ecosystem, biodiversity loss, biodiversity strategy, biodiversity strategy for 2030, driver of biodiversity loss, ecosurveillance, ecosystem service, ecotoxicology, pesticide, water pollution