Environmental sustainability starts here.

Scientists from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center have been boarding research vessels for more than 50 years to monitor Lake Tahoe’s quality and clarity. These expeditions help us understand how to counteract the effects of climate change that threaten this California treasure and other lakes throughout the world. This year, researchers disproved a long-held misperception: Lake Tahoe’s famed blueness is not due to high clarity, but to low levels of algae. What will we discover next?

UC Davis researcher Katie Webb pilots the R/V Bob Richards, Lake Tahoe