The Environment of Lake Tahoe and Related Concerns:

Lake Tahoe has been marveled for its clarity, under some conditions having visibility up to 30m. This is is primarily due to a large volume (40%) of precipitation input to the basin being directly intercepted by the lake itself and the remaining precipitation draining through relatively inert granitic soils before entering the lake. However, recent studies suggest that a rapid and largely irreversible eutrophication is taking place, causing visibility to decrease by up to 0.25m/year. Studies suggest that the eutrophication of the lake has been accelerated as a result of the limnetic system shifting from a nitrogen limited situation to that of being phosphorus limited. This is a direct result of accelerated anthropogenic nitrogen inputs. Lake temperature regimes are changing as a result of increasing average atmospheric temperatures. Great changes have aslo occured in the ecological webs of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Pollution and introduced species have removed whole levels of food chains, causing native populations to collapse, such as occured with the introduction of Oppossum Shrimp. The shrimp were introduced as a means of increased food suppy for another introduced species, Kokanee Salmon, and almost completely eliminated native shrimp species.

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