This funding opportunity solicits research needed to advance our understanding of the properties and processes important to climate resilience in estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems to better inform coastal ecosystem management strategies. Resilient coastal ecosystems and the benefits they provide may persist over time in the face of multiple stressors or disturbances. However, the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors may exceed resilience capacity, alter ecosystem structure and function, or result in loss of coastal ecosystems. Elucidation of the mechanistic basis of resilience in coastal ecosystems and development of quantitative indicators or metrics rooted in the mechanisms of resilience will greatly advance the science of coastal ecosystem management. Effective coastal ecosystem management strategies also require advances in economic valuation approaches to estimate the benefits provided by coastal ecosystems, particularly those benefits related to increasing climate change resilience (e.g., avoided costs from flooding and property damage, avoided costs from disruptions to commercial activities such as tourism or fisheries, or benefits provided when considered together with other public infrastructure).

The Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program’s goal is to stimulate and support scientific and engineering research that advances EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. It is a competitive, peer-reviewed, extramural research program that provides access to the nation’s best scientists and engineers in academic and other nonprofit research institutions. STAR funds research on the environmental and public health effects of air quality, environmental changes, water quality and quantity, hazardous waste, toxic substances, and pesticides.

There are two distinct areas of research covered by this solicitation. Applicants should respond in depth to at least one of the two research areas. Applications may respond to one research area or integrate across two research areas. The goal of this research is to collectively provide coverage for all the nation’s relevant coastal areas. For example, if individual metrics or indicators are developed at regional levels, then those metrics or indicators should be developed for all regions in the United States as part of this research. The final suite of metrics, indicators, or methods developed by the project research area should not be limited to one geographic region.

• Research Area 1: Characterize, quantify, and define indicators or metrics of resilience for various types of coastal ecosystems, especially those ecosystems that have climate mitigation and adaptation and/or blue carbon sequestration potential (i.e., tidal wetlands and marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove forests).
• Research Area 2: Develop methods and approaches to advance economic valuation of the resilience benefits of coastal ecosystems.