The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region Seven (7), Alaska, intends to award a sole source, firm-fixed price purchase order to the University of Idaho. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region Seven (7), Alaska, requires the services for a modeling space use analysis of the polar bear in the Chukchi, Bering, and East Siberian Seas. Work Description:Contractor will assist FWS with final spatial analysis of location data previously collected from polar bears in the Chukchi, Bering and East Siberian Seas Sea during March 2008 - May 2011. The goal of this analysis will be to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of polar bear movements and the environmental variables that influence these movements. For this analysis the Contractor will:1. Use the location data to derive movement characteristics (e.g., speed, heading, turning angles, persistence velocities, etc.). Based on these characteristic and an appropriate method identified during the current project, Contractor will categorize location data into general behavioral states (e.g., denning, exploratory, foraging, etc.). If appropriate, Contractor will use movement characteristics and knowledge of polar bear ecology to further stratify location data into ecologically meaningful seasons (i.e., summer, ice advance, winter, ice retreat).2. Coordinate with FWS to identify the spatial scales for modeling space use and resource selection 3. Model polar bear space use, for each season and behavioral state identified in (1), based on the general framework described in Johnson et al. (2008). This framework will allow analysis polar bear space use as a function of spatio-temporally varying resources at the hierarchy of spatial scales identified in (2).4. Describe annual home ranges for comparison with other polar bear populations and to establish baseline conditions for future monitoring. For all analyses described above, the Contractor will:1. Compile, format, and manage polar bear location data, provided by FWS, and spatio-temporal GIS layers.2. Develop and disseminate to FWS all computer code (programmed in R) used.3. Prepare manuscript(s) for peer-reviewed publication including, but not limited to, writing methods and results sections. The FWS will retain all rights to data. Justification for Sole Source:In September 2010, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) initiated a collaborative research project between USFWS biologists and researchers with United States Geological Survey (USGS) - Cooperative Research Units Program, University of Idaho to assist collaborators with preliminary spatial analysis of previously collected polar bear location data. On June 16, 2011, Mr. Horne submitted the final report of this pilot study to the USFWS. Beginning in February, 2011, we initiated the process to extend the existing agreement with the researchers to continue this work and finalize analysis of the polar bear data collected to date. However, we were unsuccessful in implementing a follow-on intra-agency agreement, due to a change in the principal researcher's (Jon Horne) employment status from post-doc to research scientist. As a result of this change, there was no longer a student associated with this project; therefore the USGS was unwilling to do the work through an IA. As a result, we have to enter into a new contract with the University of Idaho to continue this critical work. Because no other entities have worked on this project, and because the methods developed to analyze the data are unique to this project and its researchers and collaborators, there is no other source available to finish the final analysis of our polar bear data. All responsible source may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency. Responses must be received by 10:00 AM Alaska Standard Time on September 12, 2011 to
[email protected]. Questions or concerns may be directed to Christie VandenDries at (907)786-3415.