Global Warming Turns Lake Tahoe Green

Lake Tahoe, the famed jewel on the California-Nevada border, may be losing her blue luster as soon as the next ten years, when global warming is expected to disrupt the cycles that make this lake so different from any other.

Lake Tahoe Image by Will_Hybrid on Flickr

A University of California-Davis study has determined that as the lake temperature rises, fewer of the coldwater fish that thrive in its waters will be around to mix the waters, allowing the water to stagnate and stratify. This would make it, in effect, just like any other lake, pond, or body of water, and give it the same murky green hue.

The lake, which is over 1,600 feet deep, has an abundance of nutrients in the depths, but must be able to circulate oxygen to that level in order to support life, something which happens as the entire body of water repositions itself every four years.

With that mixing action shut down, the nutrients would instead be consumed by algae, eventually leading to the greening of Lake Tahoe.

Info from Yahoo News.

Environmental Graffiti is up for four bloggers’ choice awards. You can vote for us for best entertainment blog, best blog of all time, best geek blog and best animal blogger.

If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subcribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album.

License:

Attribution-Share Alike

8 comments

Perhaps a degree in science would allow you to be a more factual science writer...Water temperature/density/wind is what drives circulation, not wiggling fish (unless you're talking about an overcrowded 5 gallon fish tank)...A major cause of the decrease in clarity is due to the increase of a limiting nutrient most likely in the form of human generated run off from the large increases in development around the lake basin.

Scary prospect indeed. This would be disastrous on many levels. Let's hope the prediction turns false.

What a POS this article is...You are a total tool, dude. Just because you say "global warming" is causing whatever doesn't make it so. Sweet F**K, I'm 17 and have already figured out all this Global Warming/Cooling/Climate change is a load of BS designed to make the lying Al Gore's of the world a fat pile of cash. Go back to sales, dude, cause as a "writer" you're a F88King moron

Well that totally sucks.
Great picture though.

Not to discount this claim or anything, but the carbon from the big fires Tahoe had last year have significantly contributed to the algae problem, not global warming... Tahoe has had one of the coldest winters it's had in years this year.

I have no doubt that warming, cooling, more precipitation, less precipitation etc., above or below the norm for an extended period of time would alter the clarity and the quality of life of Lake Tahoe. I read the article "Study: Warming may threaten Lake Tahoe". Did you read the same article? Upon reading the article I noticed there were no facts (such as would come from a study) or any information at all that would support such a theory. I asked if we read the same article because the one I read made no mention of a relationship between fish activity and lake circulation. It did say that less oxygen availability at lower depths would limit the lake trout's range and result in a decrease in population. I consider this a fact. No oxygen - no trout. I was under the impression that lake circulation depended almost entirely upon temperature differentiation. Heat goes up - cold goes down. I went to the Davis website and read the entire report showing all of the records concerning lake conditions and influences since 1911. Their own study concluded that while some factors have increased and others decreased in the last 96 years (2007 wasn't included), all of the lake's current conditions and influences fall within the "average" for the last 96 years. The article was a guess at what might happen minus any data, while their own data showed no warming trend.That does not even equate to a theory, which is by definition an educated guess. In other words they guessed what would happen if the lake maintained above average temperatures. Good. We need people looking ahead. Problem is their own detailed and complete records show no deviation from the norm up to 2006. Besides these facts they failed to show how with the absence of oxygen in the depths from lack of circulation, phosphorus would leach from the lake bed, travel upwards and encourage algae growth. If oxygen cannot travel downwards because of lack of circulation, how will phosphorus travel upwards. Just something to think about. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely, Greg

I'm glad that the effects of global warming on freshwater lakes are being considered here, but I want to clarify a little about the methods of the effects.

The green hue the author mentions here is of course, algae, which I've been researching as a grad student at the University of Montana.

Algae is more tenacious in stagnant water - though I'm having a hard time with the attribution of future algal growth in Lake Tahoe to a lack of wiggling fish, as the author does. I can say that any time water temp goes up (whether in a lake, river or ocean) algal levels rise.

Of course, as any plant, algae will also thrive wherever there is a lot of fertilizer run-off. If you want, take a look at what is going on with the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico: http://envirovore.com/content/view/24/1/

Tahoe has had one of the coldest winters it’s had in years this year.

Saamor -having an expecially cold winter is a sure sign of global warming. If you don't believe that then try 'sure sign of climate change'. If you don't believe that then you are a 'flat earther'. We must keep the faith and believe the Messaih despite the damning evidence.