UC Toxics News: Spring 2001
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2001 Symposium in Lake Tahoe Featured Snow, Award Winning Posters and Dynamic Talk on the Health of Lake Tahoe by Mika Pringle Tolson |
Despite nearly 12 inches of snowfall the first day of the TSR&TP Spring Research Symposium, over 200 University of California students, faculty, staff, TSR&TP committee representatives, and members of the general public attended the Lake Tahoe meeting at the Granlibakken Resort. We would like to thank those who traveled the long distances and braved the wintry weather to participate.
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TSR&TP Director Jerry Last and UC San Diego researcher Michael Latz with a backdrop of snow covered trees during the Friday evening poster session at the Granlibakken. |
Friday evening's events included a reception and informal poster session in which participants browsed through posters in anticipation of the formal sessions on Saturday. The Friday dinner banquet was followed by an open forum with the TSR&TP Director, Jerry Last, and members of the TSR&TP Executive Committee and Public Advisory Committee. Students and faculty asked questions about the history and structure of the TSR&TP, availability of funding for grants and fellowships, review criteria, and locations of future symposia. The forum turned out to be an informative and light-hearted interaction between the program's funded affiliates, the Director's Office, and the governing committees.
On Saturday, Jerry Last gave a brief welcome address to commence the formal poster sessions. Presenters stood by their posters in alternate sessions to explain their research and answer questions. To encourage students to do their best in preparing posters, the TSR&TP held a Best Poster Award contest. Posters were judged by members of the Executive Committee on scientific content, creativity, and ability to communicate science to a broad audience. This year's winner was Daniela Oltean of UC Riverside, with honorable mention going to Dimitri Deheyn of UC San Diego and Jessica Hittle of UC Berkeley.
Charles Goldman, Director of the Tahoe Research Group, gave the keynote address on Lake Tahoe: The Role of Science and Policy through Four Decades of Change. Dr. Goldman has been monitoring the health and clarity of Lake Tahoe's water since 1959. The water quality has been steadily declining due to increased sedimentation from air pollution, mining, dirt roads, and lake shore developments. Non-native plants and animals have also wreaked havoc on the lake's native fish populations. The transparency of Tahoe's water has been one of the lake's defining characteristics, and a trait that has drawn many people to its shores. "If we continue to lose transparency at the current rate," says Goldman, "by 2030 Lake Tahoe will be just an ordinary lake."
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Trainee Andrew Whitehead (right) of UC Davis discusses his research with Executive Committee member Tu Jarvis at the Symposium poster session. |
In 1970, Lake Tahoe began developing a green margin, and in the early 1990s, Tahoe saw large increases in algal growth. Lake Tahoe was a classic nitrogen-limited lake, but now with increases in nitrogen inputs, phosphorous is the dominant limiting factor for algal growth. Air pollution is suspected to be the major source of nitrogen. According to Goldman, more than 50% of the nitrogen loading in Lake Tahoe comes out of the atmosphere.
In the late 1990s, President Clinton and Vice President Gore visited Lake Tahoe to see firsthand the effects of pollution in the lake. Since then, there has been a consensus that everyone will lose if we don't save Lake Tahoe. Goldman says it's not too late to turn the trend around and keep Tahoe blue. The Tahoe Research Group has been working with numerous state, federal, and private agencies to help control pollution in the lake. Goldman's group recently received a $2.6 million grant from the Packard Foundation, completing a $13 million campaign to build a research and education center at Lake Tahoe.
Goldman concluded his talk with encouragement for TSR&TP researchers to continue their efforts in the area of toxic substances in the environment, to help fight what he called the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse - global pollution.