The Basin and Range Project
  • Home
    • Support the Basin and Range Project
  • Basin and Range Blog
  • About the Basin and Range
    • Basin and Range Geology
    • Photo Tour
    • Plants and Animals
    • Responsible Recreation


​Basin and Range Project
​Blog

​

Keeping Tahoe Blue Doesn't Mean Keeping Clear

8/3/2015

0 Comments

 
From Conservation Magazine:

The Amazon River and its tributaries, long watery snakes wind their way through the Amazon rainforest, are a dull, murky, muddy brown. Other waterways show up as green, primarily thanks to photosynthesizing algae. But perhaps the most prized waterways are colored a deep, rich, vibrant blue. Lake Tahoe, the second deepest lake in the US and sixth largest (following the five Great Lakes), is one of the most iconic blue water lakes.

For a long time it’s been thought that the lake’s prized blueness, the focus of local “Keep Tahoe Blue!” campaigns, was related to water clarity. That makes intuitive sense. But the latest State of the Lake, a yearly publication from UC Davis’s Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC), reports something different. For the first time ever, researchers there have managed to quantify the lake’s blueness by developing a measurement they call the “blueness index.”

To measure the lake’s blueness, TERC postdoctoral researcher Shohei Watanabe collaborated with researchers from Canada’s Laval University and NASA-JPL to measure the wavelengths of visible light leaving the water. By continuously monitoring those wavelengths, he was able to create a color record over time for the lake.

But it turns out that during parts of the year when clarity increases, blueness actually decreases. Clear water does not a blue lake make.

The lake’s clarity is governed by the presence (or absence) of fine particulate matter that seeps into the lake from the surrounding land. When there are fewer particles floating around, the lake becomes clearer – but not bluer. Blueness, instead, is related to the presence of algae. When there are more algae, the lake appears less blue to the human eye.

Learn more here: http://conservationmagazine.org/2015/07/keeping-lake-tahoe-blue-doesnt-mean-keeping-it-clear/

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Support Us
    Follow us on these social media sites:

    The Basin and Range Project
    We love the Basin and Range region and work to promote appreciation and respect for the area.  We encourage all users to learn about, play in and protect this amazing resource.
    We currently focus primarily on issues in the Nevada region of the Basin and Range, but are looking to expand soon.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Animal Profile
    Animals
    Art
    Basin And Range Photo Tour
    Basin And Range Word Focus
    Book Club
    Cultural
    Education
    Energy
    Events
    Fire
    Grants
    Interesting
    Invasives
    Issues
    Land
    Nature
    Photography
    Place Profile
    Plant Profile
    Plants
    Public Lands
    Quotes
    Recipes
    Recreation
    Restoration
    Stewardship
    Volunteer
    Water
    Wildlife

    We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
  • Home
    • Support the Basin and Range Project
  • Basin and Range Blog
  • About the Basin and Range
    • Basin and Range Geology
    • Photo Tour
    • Plants and Animals
    • Responsible Recreation