Emerald Lake is a glacial cirque lake located in the Tokopah Valley of Sequoia National Park. The Tokopah Valley forms the headwaters of the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River in the southern Sierra Nevada. Emerald Lake and the Tokopah Valley are the best-equipped and most thoroughly researched alpine sites in the Sierra Nevada, California with consistent meteorological and hydrological measurements, extensive snow-sampling programs and 31 years of limnological analyses (1982 to present). Our research is focused on how altered climate, changing snow regime and changes in atmospheric composition are driving biogeochemical and trophic changes in high elevation ecosystems.
Emerald Lake and the Tokopah Valley in the Sierra Nevada (California) have been the focus of sustained limnological and watershed research since 1983. Knowledge gained through this research has transformed our understanding of how the thousands of lakes and watersheds in the Sierra Nevada are responding to global change.