Tahoe Environmental Research Center

Lake Tahoe Research Tour

Geoff Schladow and Charles Goldman board the research vessel John LeConte to demonstrate the measurements that protect Lake Tahoe's renowned clarity, ending with a mini tour of the recently opened Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village.

Webcast: Real Player, Windows Media, 4:31 minutes

Paul Pfotenhauer, producer; Ken Zukin, videographer (2006)

Transcript

[Deb Niemeier:] People describe Lake Tahoe as one of the loveliest lakes in all of North America. Hi, I’m Deb Niemeier and I’m director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment. The monitoring of the lake water clarity here at Lake Tahoe also represents one of the most successful collaborations in recent history. It’s a textbook example of what people can accomplish when they work together. The recently opened Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences was built by three universities in two states and fully supported by local, state and federal agencies as well as the environmental organizations. In spite of all the research being done in the watershed challenges remain.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Lake Tahoe is famous for its clear waters but for the past forty years the lake has lost some of its clarity and the reasons why are becoming clearer. UC Davis scientists say sediment deposits are key to why the lake is loosing its luster.

[Geoffrey Schladow:] Tributaries are just one source of the sediments. We also have them coming in from the urban areas, off streets and parking lots. Surprisingly the air is a major source so this is fine particles in the air kicked up by automobiles, brought in by forest fires, and even wafted over the Sierra by the prevailing winds.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] The clarity goes up and down annually, and even week to week depending on the mixing process within the lake.

[Geoffrey Schladow:] So following a particularly wet winter we find clarity goes down. For a dry winter it improves. But if you take that long term data set that we have and you look at the trend there is this continuous downward trend in clarity.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Schladow and other scientists from UC Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center say loss of clarity is directly related to human impact. For forty years Charles Goldman has devoted his life to understanding the complex dynamics between the lake and the surrounding basin. He says the future is about minimizing human impact on the entire Lake Tahoe watershed.

[Charles Goldman:] If we can’t, with all the possibilities, the affluence we have at Lake Tahoe, save a lake like this, what prospect do we have really of solving world pollution problems.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Much of what we know about the lake has come from measurements made aboard the UC Davis research boat The John LeConte. Every ten days, come rain, snow or sleet, researchers take water samples, collect plankton and occasionally sample the sediment layers. But recently the lake has been equipped with high tech sensors. Scientists from UC Davis and NASA have placed a network of buoys on Lake Tahoe. These research stations are providing lots of data for scientists back at the lab.

[Geoffrey Schladow:] So we're transitioning now to a new way of doing science. And the way we like to do it is through continuous monit -- continuous measurement -- and having those data available in real time. So as an example, we have these six buoys on the lake. They are all instrumented, and we are getting those data directly from wireless modems, over the Internet, and we can see how the wind direction is changing across the lake. We can see what the clarity is doing in the lake and the water temperature, and those data are all being sent to one place -- to the new Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] This new $24 million dollar facility, located in Incline Village, Nevada, is able to analyze the data in a much more comprehensive way than ever before.

[Geoffrey Schladow:] Now we have different labs for different purposes. We have room to accommodate far more students, visitors from other institutions. We can start brining together the physicists, the chemists, the political scientists  -- everything we need to address Tahoe’s problems.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] This science center is also an educational center for the public to learn about the environmental challenges facing the Tahoe ecosystem. Visitors can put on 3D glasses and take a virtual tour of the Tahoe basin: from Mount Rose’s summit at 10,776 feet to the deepest part of the lake 1,645 feet down. UC Davis is continuing to provide local, state and federal agencies with the scientific facts so that the public sector can make sound decisions regarding the future of Lake Tahoe’s health.