![]() As the Caldor Fire fills the air with smoke, researcher Brandon Berry replaces the particle sampler on one of UC Davis’ research buoys on Lake Tahoe on August 25, 2021. “I am not as worried about the clarity but the sensitive, endemic (only found in one location) species that are hanging on in the lake…The clarity may be able to rebound but will we lose these species that are already having a tough time?” said Sudeep Chandra, professor of biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. ![]() Lake Tahoe and its surrounding lands and waters are home to abundant wildlife, including Lahontan cutthroat trout, which are a threatened species, as well as mountain whitefish, black bears, beavers, marmots, deer, raptors, rare flowering plants and a wingless stonefly that lives on the bottom of the deep lake and provides food for fish. That’s sort of unheard of in the middle of the day at Lake Tahoe in August,” Schladow said. And you could not hear another boat on the lake. “The eeriest thing is that here we were at the end of August, on Lake Tahoe. In recent years, its clarity - a sign of its improving health - has begun to stabilize as state and local officials in California and Nevada took steps to protect the lake. Over the past half-century, the alpine lake has lost 40% of its clarity, largely due to runoff containing particles and plant-feeding nitrogen and phosphorus. Right now we’re seeing down maybe 50 feet,” Schladow said. “Normally around this time of year, we would expect to see down maybe 65 feet. The changes could be caused by a combination of factors: smoke preventing sunlight from penetrating the lake’s depths, ash muddying its water or more algae growing near its surface. The research center’s tests of the lake already show that its clarity declined in recent days, although Schladow said it may be temporary. “We’ve never had a fire of this extent before…This one is off the charts,” said Geoffrey Schladow, director of the University of California, Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Researchers are now trying to figure out what the residue and flames from the Caldor Fire, which crossed a granite ridge and spread into the Lake Tahoe basin on Monday, could mean for the iconic cobalt-blue lake. But certainly the clarity of the lake, how deep you can see in the lake, could be affected for several years,” said Randy Dahlgren, emeritus professor of soils and biogeochemistry at the University of California, Davis. “It’s not going to turn the lake green or anything like that, in my opinion. More debris and sediment are likely to wash into the lake from runoff and rain this fall and winter. While the long-term effects are unclear, ash and soot are now coating the surface of the High Sierra lake and veiling the sun, which can disrupt the lake’s ecosystem and its clarity. Smoke and ash from wildfires near Lake Tahoe - one of the deepest lakes in the world - is already clouding the lake’s famously clear water, researchers say. Its extent depends on how much soot is released into its famous blue waters. ![]() The damage could be temporary, or it could last years. Researchers have already seen drops in Lake Tahoe’s clarity during the fires.
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