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Research Center (TERC)
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.
State of the Lake 2011
The long-term data set collected on the Lake Tahoe ecosystem by the University of California, Davis, and its research collaborators is an invaluable tool for understanding ecosystem function and change. It has become essential for responsible management by public agencies tasked with restoring and managing the Tahoe ecosystem, in part because it provides a basis for monitoring of progress toward reaching Tahoe’s restoration goals and desired conditions. This annual Tahoe: State of the Lake Report presents data from 2010 in the context of the long-term record. While the focus is on data collected as part of our ongoing, decades-long, long-term measurement programs, this year we have also included several detailed sections on lake clarity, trophic status and progress on the efforts to control Asian clams. [more...]
New 3-D Movie "Lake Tahoe in Depth" Available at Science Education Center
Visit the Thomas J. Long Foundation Education Center in Incline Village to see the new 3-D movie "Lake Tahoe in Depth" now available in the Otellini 3-D Visualization Lab. You can see into the lake, under the water, and around the watershed. Lake Tahoe is affected by many impacts including urbanization, loss of clarity, invasive species and climate change. This tour provides the underlying geologic history of the basin for a better understanding of these issues.[more...]
Attached algae or “periphyton” growth peaks in spring at Lake Tahoe
This time of year the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) receives many phone calls and emails from locals and visitors with concerns about the algae growth they see. Spring, with its increasing solar radiation, is the time when growth of attached algae (periphyton) is usually the heaviest...[more...]
View Historic Papers About Lake Tahoe
Professor John Le Conte of the State University, Berkeley, California, was an American scientist and academic. He presented the results of his physical studies of Lake Tahoe in three elaborate chapters presented in the November and December 1883 and January 1884 editions of the Overland Monthly. View three historic scientific papers on Lake Tahoe:
The 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...]
The University of California, Davis, has monitored Lake Tahoe for nearly 40
years, amassing a unique record of change for one of the world’s most beautiful
and vulnerable lakes. In the UC Davis Tahoe: State of the Lake Report, we
summarize how natural variability and human activity have affected the lake’s
clarity, physics, chemistry and biology. More…
Geoff Schladow and Charles Goldman board the research vessel John LeConte to demonstrate
the measurements that protect Lake Tahoe's renowned clarity.
More…
