• News
  • Lake Facts
  • About

Lake Scientist

Lake Tahoe Sees Mysterious Loss Of Aquatic Animals And Vegetation

1
  • by Daniel Kelly
  • — January 20, 2015

Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, are working to figure out why small animals and plants that typically inhabit the bottom of Lake Tahoe are dying off at an accelerated pace, according to the Associated Press. The losses are affecting stoneflies, bottom shrimp and water mites.

Still other animals have been impacted more dramatically, with populations of blind amphipods and the Tahoe flatworm dropping more than 99 percent.

“They are disappearing. It’s unprecedented. It’s absolutely dramatic,” said Sudeep Chandra, associate professor at the university, to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Emerald_Bay_Lake_Tahoe

Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay. (Credit: Flickr User the_tahoe_guy via Creative Commons 2.0)

To tackle the issue, dive teams have completed a pass around the entire water body, documenting habitats and organisms. Chandra and others are working to analyze those findings, but the cause of the die-offs remains unclear.

Some hypothesize that impacts to animal populations are largely due to losses that aquatic plants are feeling. These could be due to diminished clarity for the lake overall, as clearness has dropped from 100 feet to a relatively stable 70 feet in the past 55 years. Invasive crayfish in Lake Tahoe, which have populations nearing 300 million, could also be grazing on the aquatic plants.

North_Lake_Tahoe_Aerial_photo

North Lake Tahoe. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons User WPPilot via Creative Commons 4.0)

The first round of dives was completed at depths of about 15 to 20 feet. Researchers are now hoping to secure funding that would support another series of dives to look into deeper sections of the lake.

“It looks like clarity is beginning to stabilize, but the bottom of the lake continues to change at a dramatic rate,” said Chandra to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Share

You may also like...

  • The California Aqueduct in San Joaquín Valley, Calif. California coalition seeks suit over water pollution
  • Lake Erie’s ecosystem declining due to poisonous algae
  • Commercial trapping of crayfish to begin on Lake Tahoe
  • Ocean fishery in steep decline

1 Comment

  1. Cary Opteris says:
    January 25, 2015 at 11:00 PM

    Just look over your heads at the chemicals being dropped on us. Check the lake for increased levels of aluminum, barium, uranium, arsenic … lovely chemical soup.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

FishSens SondeCAM HD
  • Recent Posts

    • Foggy lake near Sogndal, NorwayResearch Brief: Synchrony in Phosphorous Concentrations Linked to Winter and Summer ConditionsMarch 31, 2023
    • Onset HOBO RX3000 Remote Soil Monitoring StationMarch 27, 2023
    • Lake Malawi: A Treasure to ProtectMarch 20, 2023
    • Microbes and Human Health: Aquatic Microbial Communities May Hold Clues about How Deadly Pathogens SpreadMarch 13, 2023
    • Research Brief: Causes and Consequences of Oxygen VariabilityMarch 10, 2023
  • Popular Tags

    Great Lakes research pollution Lake Erie Product Spotlight invasive species research summary Algae runoff international Lake Michigan Ohio EPA nutrient-loading dissolved oxygen temperature eutrophication toxic waters USGS climate change ice phosphorus Asian Carp Michigan list

©2023 Fondriest Environmental Inc. | Questions? Call 888.426.2151 or email customercare@fondriest.com