Tahoe Environmental Research Center

Tahoe Environmental Research Center

The Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) is dedicated to research, education and public outreach on lakes and their surrounding watersheds and airsheds. Lake ecosystems include the physical, biogeochemical and human environments, and the interactions among them. The Center is committed to providing objective scientific information for restoration and sustainable use of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Lake Tahoe Clarity Continues to Hold Steady in 2008

Secchi Depth Chart

The waters of Lake Tahoe were clear to an average depth of 69.6 feet in 2008, according to UC Davis scientists who have monitored the lake since 1968. That keeps the clarity measurement in the range where it has been for about the past eight years.

When measurements began in 1968, a white "Secchi disk" lowered into the lake was visible at an average depth of 102.4 feet. Last year UC Davis reported that data since 2001 suggested lake clarity was not declining as fast as it had been.[more...]

 

Asian Clam (Corbicula fluminea) at Lake Tahoe

Corbicula fluminea in Lake Tahoe

In spring 2008 UC Davis researchers discovered extensive and often dense beds of an invasive bivalve, the Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) in southeastern Lake Tahoe in nearshore areas from Zephyr Cove to El Dorado Beach.

Observations by researchers at the University of Nevada Reno of small numbers of clams (densities of 3-20 individuals per square meter) in 2002 suggest that Asian clam may have been in Lake Tahoe for at least 6 years; however, the densities and size of the recently observed beds are much larger than previously reported.[more...]

 

Climate Change Alters Base of Tahoe Food Web

Photo credit: Deborah A Hunter

UC Davis researchers at Lake Tahoe published the first evidence that climate change alters the makeup of tiny plant communities called algae, which are the very foundation of the web of life in freshwater lakes.

Other scientists had predicted that climate change would reduce the overall amount, or biovolume, of an important algae group called diatoms. However, the UC Davis researchers found that the warming of the lake changed not the overall biovolume but rather the relative populations of various diatom species. [more...]

 

Tahoe Research Center Among 'Greenest' Buildings

Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences building

The new home of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center has been named one of only five science laboratories in the world to receive a Platinum LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The building council recognizes several levels of energy- and environmental-design excellence; platinum is its highest award.

Located in Incline Village, Nev., the Tahoe Center is a 45,000-square-foot facility that houses UC Davis research laboratories and a free, public education center; Sierra Nevada College laboratories and classrooms; and office space for the Desert Research Institute and University of Nevada, Reno's Academy for the Environment. All of these functions are focused on understanding and preserving the unique ecology of the Lake Tahoe watershed.[more...]