Current Research Activities

Rationale

Lakes have long attracted study by scientists, and insights derived from their investigation have led to advances in the natural sciences. Because of the high degree of interconnectedness of lakes to soils and the atmosphere, lakes integrate conditions within their catchments and have been shown to be sentinels of global environmental change. Mountain lakes, in particular, are recognized as excellent indicators of regional environmental conditions and are increasingly being used by regulatory agencies to establish critical loads for atmospheric pollutants The importance of montane snowpacks to freshwater supplies mandates that attention be paid to the biogeochemistry, hydrology and ecology of these systems.

The major goal of our ongoing decadal research plan and our motivation for continuation of our watershed studies is to identify and understand drivers of long-term change in aquatic ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada with a focus on Emerald Lake. The primary foci of our current research is: i) continued assessment of the response of phytoplankton to changing atmospheric deposition, and ii) continued study of the coupling between climate variability and N and P biogeochemistry. To learn more about our recent and future research activities please click on the following links: 2007-2012 | 2013-2017