Vision
To achieve healthy aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through scientific understanding and education for the benefit of communities locally and globally.
To guide the preservation of a resilient and sustainable ecosystem at Lake Tahoe for generations to come.
To provide objective scientific knowledge to the public, school children, private industry, government agencies, and elected officials.
Mission
UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and education to advance the knowledge of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their interactions within natural and developed Earth systems, and to communicate science-informed solutions worldwide.
Guiding Principles
We are a diverse team that values equity and inclusivity and collaborates to achieve our goals.
We operate from a place of respect and shared understanding where individuals are treated with dignity, compassion, and understanding.
We approach our work in a way that is both innovative and retrospective to generate creative ideas and solutions.
Our ongoing commitment to excellence and knowledge enables meaningful engagement on local to global scales.
We aspire to make a positive difference in the world.
Our research, education, and outreach promote access to sustainable environmental stewardship.
Overview
Known for its beauty and remarkable transparency, Lake Tahoe is a natural jewel in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Tahoe basin is a changing landscape and, today, significant portions of this once pristine region are urbanized. Unfortunately, over the last five decades, increased human development has had a significant impact in the Tahoe Basin. Studies from the early 1960s to the present have shown that many factors such as land disturbance, increasing resident and tourist population, habitat destruction, air pollution, soil erosion, roads and road maintenance, and loss of wetlands have all interacted to degrade the Basin's air quality, terrestrial landscape and streams, as well as the lake itself.
The lake has responded to increased nutrient loading from the streams, atmosphere and groundwater with steadily increasing algal growth (eutrophication) and a progressive reduction of clarity. The lake has lost approximately 33 feet, or one-third of its famous transparency, during the last 40 years and oxygen concentrations in the deep waters have declined significantly. Thick growths of attached algae now coat the shoreline rocks in the spring.
TERC is dedicated to objective research on these and other factors at Lake Tahoe and to bringing this information to the public. The Tahoe Science Center in Incline Village, NV presents the latest findings to visitors, organized groups, and school field trips. Special events are designed to promote science education in schools and to encourage lifelong learning in the Tahoe community.
History
The first professor hired by the fledgling University of California in 1868 was the physicist John LeConte. He initiated the first scientific measurements in Lake Tahoe, including the first measurements of its clarity. UC Davis, through the pioneering work of Dr. Charles Goldman, began conducting research on Lake Tahoe in 1958; as a result, there is over 60 years of data that describes the lake's ecosystem, as well as its watershed and airshed. Every 10 days a white Secchi disk is lowered into the lake from the UC Davis research vessel (RV John LeConte) to determine the lake's clarity. The annual State of the Lake report provides the science that federal, state, and local government agencies use to assess the lake's health and guide management decisions. This pivotal research stands apart in importance from any other that has been conducted in the country, particularly useful in understanding the impact of change in freshwater environments over time.
TERC around the world
With over 60 years of limnology research conducted at Lake Tahoe, UC Davis has trained hundreds of scientists and researchers here. They are now environmental and educational leaders around the world, taking the lessons learned from Lake Tahoe and applying them globally. TERC's current research is touching every continent, with active collaborations with researchers in Spain, Turkey, Iceland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Bhutan, Chile, and Tanzania.
Education and Outreach at TERC
Education and outreach is an integral component of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) activities in the Tahoe basin. The goal of our education programs is to provide science-based information about the Lake Tahoe region in order to foster responsible action and stewardship. TERC currently interacts with more than 11,000 people annually, including providing over 4,000 local students with the opportunity to learn about the unique and fragile ecosystem of Lake Tahoe, the state-of-the-art science and research activities occurring here, and how they can protect the Tahoe basin. Programs for the public include tours of the Tahoe Science Center (Incline Village) and the Eriksson Education Center (Tahoe City), monthly lecture series, docent training program, the Youth Science Institute for high school students, and various events, such as Science Expo (March), Family Science Day (August). Programs for educators include a summer "Tahoe Teacher Institute" and teacher workshops such as "Project WET."
TERC Facilities
The main TERC labs and offices are located in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences (TCES) building located on the University of Reno Lake Tahoe campus. Within the TCES building is our platinum LEED lab facility, the Tahoe Science Center, and the UC Davis offices. TERC also has a small fleet of research vessels, including the R/V John Leconte, R/V Bob Richards, and the R/V Ted Franz. The R/V Ted Franz is housed at the Tahoe City Field Station also known as the Historic Hatchery where the majority of TERC's field equipment is located. Our offices on the actual UC Davis campus are in the Watershed Sciences building.