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The NOAA RESTORE Science Program is awarding $7.1M in funding from the program’s 2025 funding competition focused on long-term trends in the Gulf of America ecosystem. Two projects will receive funding for five years to conduct long term collaborative research that informs natural resource management along with the opportunity for five additional years of funding if they are high-performing.
These projects will track long term trends in natural resources on Florida’s barrier islands and shallow and mesophotic coral communities off of Texas. These awards will support teams of researchers and resource managers from across 13 institutions with project teams including representatives from universities, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
Click on each Project Title to learn more about individual projects.
Title: ISLAND: Integrating sediment, landscape, and environmental dynamics to manage natural resources on barrier islands of the Florida Panhandle
Lead Investigator: Sara Zeigler
Lead Institution: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Award Amount: $3,573,544
Project Description: This project will evaluate how barrier islands along the Florida panhandle are changing in relation to changing temperature, precipitation, storms and sea level rise. The project team will work across multiple federal and state agencies including National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USGS, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection to create landscape-scale management plans that consider multiple user-specified natural resource management, visitor experience, and long-term island resilience.
Title: Long-Term Coral Reef Trends and Climate Resilience Strategies in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Gulf of America
Lead Investigator: Matthew Warham
Lead Institution: National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Award Amount: $3,499,997
Project Description: The project will monitor long term trends on shallow and mesophotic coral communities in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary to address information needs related to climate and water quality. They will also employ thermal stress and calcification experiments to evaluate resilience potential across genotypes as well as reproductive, physiological, and survivorship responses. The primary deliverable is a Climate Resilience Strategy to ensure preparedness for future restoration efforts.
The projects were selected following a rigorous and competitive process that included review by a panel of outside experts. Review criteria included the importance and applicability of the project, technical and scientific merit, overall qualifications of applicants, project costs and project team integration and practices.
This funding is provided through the RESTORE Act, also known as the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act. RESTORE was created following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The mission of the NOAA RESTORE Science Program is to carry out research, observation, and monitoring to support the long-term sustainability of the Gulf ecosystem, including its fisheries.