Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with the Great Plains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

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The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for hydrologic research in the Dakotas and Missouri River basin. This funding opportunity is to participate in a variety of hydrologic issues including the water availability and quality of groundwater and surface water and the effects on associated aquifers, watersheds, and reservoirs. A range of challenges face water resource managers in the Dakotas including energy development, drought, floods, climate variability, land-use and climatic changes, water contamination, and surface water dynamics. The Dakota Water Science Center (DWSC) engages in basin-wide (Missouri), regional, and national-scale research related to water chemistry, surface water and groundwater hydrology, as well as the variables that influence the hydrology of our nation including climate variability and land use changes. Climate variability has prompted changes in agricultural practices, such as tile drainage of fields and has been shown to change the river dynamics, resulting in increased runoff, which in turn changes some water-quality characteristic like sediment load as well as streamflow statistics (both base flow and peak discharges). Tribal Nations have experienced losses of valuable lands along reservoirs due to extreme erosion. In response to these hydrologic events, a range of research projects in association with Federal, State, local, and Tribal partners will characterize the physical effects of external stresses on groundwater and surface water systems and associated ecosystems. Lastly, this research will advance understanding of how to apply scientific understanding to decision making processes under conditions of great uncertainty.