| Incline Creek Experimental
Watershed:
The Incline Creek watershed is located at the northeast corner of
Lake Tahoe and is southwest of Reno, NV. The ICEW includes undeveloped
forested areas at it's higher elevations and includes about 30%
of Incline Village in its lower elevations. In addition to residential
and commericial properities, two golf courses and a ski area run
by the Incline Village General Improvement District are within its
boundaries.
Basic Stats:
Drainage: 18.1 km2,
Elevation from 3,150 m to 1,900 m
Drains into: Lake Tahoe
Soils: predominately granite-derived soils but some oils
derived from volcanic rocks.
Streams: Incline Creek, Deer Creek. |
References:
Byron ER, Goldman CR (1986). A technical summary of changing water
quality in Lake Tahoe: The first five years of the Lake Tahoe Interagency
Monitoring Program. Tahoe Research Group Institute of Ecology. Univ.
of Calif. at Davis. 62pp.
Jassby AD, Reuter JE, Axler R, Goldman C, Hackley
S (1994) Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and phosphorus in the
annual nutrient load of Lake Tahoe (California-Nevada): Water Resources
Research, 30: 2207-2216. |
|
Lake Tahoe is a unique environment that has
been designated an “Outstanding National Water Resource” due
to its ecological assets, scenic quality and recreational appeal. The
optical clarity of Lake Tahoe has decreased during the last four decades
as a result of algal growth stimulated by nutrient input from atmospheric
deposition, urban runoff, and the transport of sediment into the lake
(Byron and Goldman, 1986; Jassby et al. 1994), but the linkages between
the bigeochemical cycling of nutrients and their hydrologic transport
into Lake Tahoe are not clear (Reuter and Miller, 2001). New pressures
are now being exerted on the system by an increasing urbanization that
has negatively affected the air and water quality of the Lake Tahoe basin
Previous studies within the Lake Tahoe basin have found that the prediction
or correlation of basin-wide processes is limited by the high variation
in stream chemistry and physiographic watershed properties. Individual
watersheds have traditionally been treated as an integrated, nutrient
producing, with little regard for the specific and differing processes
that control nutrient availability and transport near and within streams.
The Incline Creek watershed was chosen as a study watershed because it
is representative of Tahoe basin soils, contains both undeveloped forests
and urbanized areas of Incline Village, NV, has historical stream data
from the USGS and that state of Nevada, and has been the focus of several
masters and doctoral research projects.
Objective:
The primary objective of this project was the collection of background
data over by establishing a study watershed at Incline Creek. Due to the
paucity of information on specific watershed processes within the Lake
Tahoe basin, we directed much of this research effort towards soft infrastructure,
i.e. the collection of a broad set of background data that could be utilized
by researchers to identify areas for subsequent, in-depth process level
studies. The first priority was to establish sound input-output budgets,
which provide the basis from which to investigate the mechanisms responsible
for the biogeochemical transfer of nutrients. This website not only contains
information about research projects, but also is a gateway to much information
about the Incline Creek and northesatern Lake Tahoe area that is currently
available.
Study Components:
- Role of upland forests in retaining, cycling, and releasing nutrients
- Role of various nitrogen fixing and non-fixing shrubs on shallow soil
water quality
- Temporal changes in stream water chemistry
- Spatial changes in stream water chemistry
- Role of Incline Creek at transferring nutrients and sediments from
the undeveloped upland forests, through urbanized areas, and finally
discharging into Lake Tahoe
- Riparian zone bioassessment utilizing benthic macroinverterbrates
- Baseline monitoring of ambient mercury concentrations in water, plants,
soil, and fluxes to/from soil
- Measurement of the snow pack in the upper, undeveloped watershed during
maximum snow pack
Partners/Funding:
The Incline Creek Experimental Watershed (ICEW) is a joint project between
the Desert Research Institute,
the University of Nevada,
Reno, and the University
of Nevada, Las Vagas. This project was funded through the National
Science Foundation (NSF). |
