ABSTRACT
Lake Tahoe, revered for its cobalt-blue color and remarkable transparency, is a system undergoing multiple environmental stresses. An aerial photograph shows Tahoe from an altitude of 19,000 feet and its watershed, which is very small with respect to its surface area and volume. The major perturbation of the Tahoe ecosystem has been the loss of valuable wetlands which, in addition to providing wildlife habitat, serve as sediment settling areas and nutrient sponges for the watershed. While discussing environmental quality, we must keep in mind that people vary in their perception of the aesthetic qualities that make any given environmental situation more desirable than another. Unlike ecotoxicologists, limnologist-ecologists look first at the effects of environmental stresses and then try to work backward through the system to tease out cause and effect. The research projects at Tahoe involve continued attention to the multiple stresses on Lake Tahoe and its watershed.
