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III. The Role of Research and Monitoring at Lake Tahoe History of Research Program The Tahoe Research Group, a unit within the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences at the University of California-Davis, has conducted pioneering research on the physics, chemistry, and biology of Lake Tahoe and its watershed for over three decades. The early limnological research program provided the first evidence of the progressive eutrophication of this unique subalpine lake and laid the scientific groundwork necessary to protect water quality from further degradation. The first TRG limnological studies of Lake Tahoe were funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to Professor Charles Goldman in 1959. A few years later, he participated in an evaluation of sewage disposal alternatives in the basin that was sponsored by the Lake Tahoe Area Council. In 1967, the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration (now US EPA) funded the beginning of the intensive TRG studies of the lake which have continued to this day with the financial support of the University of California, NSF grants, and, during the last 16 years, by the variety of state and federal agencies supporting the Lake Tahoe Interagency Monitoring Program. The quality of research at Lake Tahoe is known at the national and international levels. It was one of the earlier projects to extensively apply the watershed approach to water quality and limnology, and to incorporate sociologic, economic and regulatory concerns into these studies. The university-agency partnership model pioneered at Lake Tahoe is now used nation-wide. The academic productivity of the TRG is extensive. Over 300 scientific papers and technical reports have been completed covering a wide range of disciplines including: phytoplankton and productivity; zooplankton, crayfish and fish; nutrient dynamics and cycling; watershed, stream, and wetland ecology; environmental monitoring; atmospheric deposition; periphyton ecology; sediment-water interactions; and general limnology. A total of 34 Ph.D. and 21 M.S. degrees have been awarded through the TRG to students working at Lake Tahoe. These students have gone on to university, government and private industry positions throughout the world. |
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