Lake Tahoe Is a Large and a Very Beautiful Lake in Nevada Region of the United States
ECOSYSTEMS PAPER (LAKE TAHOE)
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Lake Tahoe is a large and a very beautiful lake in Nevada region of the United States. The surface are of the lake is about 191, 500 square miles. The average depth of the lake is about 300 meters. The lake is surrounded vegetation which supports a variety of plant life and animal life. The diversity of the organisms living around the lake is great.
The vegetation around the lake consists of rain forests including species of Jeffry Pine, lodgepole Pine, white and red first. Vegetation also includes dry meadows and brush fields. The brush field Ceanothus has the capability of fixing nitrogen that makes the soil of the surrounding lake more fertile.
There are several processes that prevail inside and outside the lake. The lake is under threat from eutrophication that can severely affect the aquatic life living in it and the surrounding vegetation. It has been estimated that there has been changes in the populations of the various aquatic animals living in the lake’s waters. Zooplankton population has faced the greatest changes.
The lake experiences winter and summer seasons with full might. Temperatures can go as high as 25.9 degrees Celsius in the summer and as low as sub-zero in the winter.
The vegetation surrounding the lake experiences these temperature changes and responds to this stimulus by the change in leaf colors and leaf numbers. The seasonal changes also affect the different mammal activities and interactions in the surrounding environment.
Human activity around the lake is considerably high. Historically, the area around the lake was inhabited by Native Americans. The lake, because of its natural beauty and vegetation is a great attraction spot for tourists who wish to ski and fish.
Because of the surrounding human population, there have been attempts to dispose of the raw sewage away from the lake basin but this strategy has not proved to be that useful. This is because the eutrophication levels of the lake water are rising at a considerably high rate.
The nitrogen and phosphorus levels of lake are increasing because of the high amounts of these elements and their compounds in the sewage water.