A -- Scientific study

The U. S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic Atmospheric, Administration/NESDIS intends to negotiate with the University of Texas Austin, TX for the continuation of climate studies using massive corals in the Caribbean sector of the tropical Atlantic Ocean. This is a collaborative effort between scientists from Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, and the University of South Florida. The previous phases focused on generating proxy climate records from coral skeletons from the Florida Keys. A new suite of coral cores were recovered from La Parguera, Puerto Rico. All of this previous work has focused in the coral Montastraea spp, but recent work has begun to explore the coral Siderastraea spp. For its potential as a climate recorder. The UT portion of this years study will include stable isotopic and elemental ratio determinations on a subset of corals samples from the Dry Tortugas.Deliverables will focus on Strontum/calcium and stable isotopic records and interpreted salinity and temperature records from the following: Dry Tortugas, and Single, normalized and bias-corrected record that matches the variance of the coral proxy temperatures with one instrumental record, using in situ records such as the C-MAN data, Reynolds data, or local thermistor data from Harold Hudson. This procurement is being conducted per FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures (NTE $100K) NAICS code 541710. Interested persons may identify their interest and must demonstrate their capability in order to be considered for this opportunity. This is not a request for competitive proposal. No competitive solicitation is planned, information submitted in response to this notice will be used solely to determine whether or not to open up for competitive procedures. Questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing to the attention of Sally Huber, E-mail sally.j.huber@noaa.gov