Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for a period of 5 years. This announcement is for notification purposes only. This project is evaluating the relative influence of climate, habitat, and competition on carnivore occupancy and snowshoe hare population dynamics in New England boreal forests. Snowshoe hare are a keystone species in the boreal forest and vulnerable to climate change. The goal is to understand how current community dynamics may be altered given predicted changes in climate and habitat to inform conservation and management in the region.