The lake faces many environmental challenges, and scientists at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) in Incline Village, Nevada, have discovered an invasive species that is affecting the lake's clarity.
The species is a tiny shrimp, called mysis shrimp, that first introduced in the 1960s. Today, there are billions of them living on the bottom of the lake where it’s dark, even in the daytime. The shrimp are everywhere and their eating habits are making Lake Tahoe less blue, according to UC Davis professor Geoff Schladow.
“(The shrimp) are making it cloudier,” said Schladow, who is the director of TERC. He said the shrimp are, “eating those zooplankton that are incredibly efficient at eating algae, and incredibly efficient at ingesting all the fine particles that come in from the urban areas of the lake."
More info, pix and video at Channel 3 News: https://www.kcra.com/article/lake-tahoe ... a/28583044
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